“The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.” Psalm 28:7 (NIV)
This is how everything started. This is how my story with breast cancer began.
I started getting mammograms relatively young. I remember that when I was 39 years old, I had my first one. My OBGYN told me that he felt a lump in my right breast and that he wanted me to have a mammogram. After I had it, the radiologist recommended that I continue to watch it. I really didn’t even feel it. But I guess it was better to be safe.
After that mammogram, he recommended a biopsy. He told me not to worry. I worried more after he mentioned it. The word “biopsy” is scary. We tend to imagine the worst when we hear that word.
The next week I was in a consultation room inside the Imaging office. The radiologist had a long needle and was preparing to do my biopsy. He told me that he was going to give me local anesthesia and that after a 5 second burning sensation I was not going to feel anything. He was going to get a sample from the lump to take to pathology.
That biopsy went exactly as he said. He poked me with a needle (as I lay on the uncomfortable operating table with my breasts hanging through a hole) and after 5 burning seconds, he got a sample and then it was done. He put a little bandage where he took out the needle, and I was ready to go.
It wasn’t as bad as I thought. What was bad, were the three days I had to wait to learn the results.
I remember being so nervous that I got sick in my stomach. I had a horrible weekend. I don’t know why I had the biopsy done on a Friday. I remember praying like never before, asking God for everything to be all right.
Luckily the weekend went by fast. With my husband’s help and his incredible ways to cheer me up I felt peace in the middle of the waiting. I spent lots of time in prayer. I prayed to God for good results.
My primary care doctor received the results on Monday morning, and the office called me around noon. His assistant told me that everything went well and that the results of the biopsy were negative. He told me that I had to repeat the mammogram next year.
Relief, gratefulness and peace is what I felt that day. Thank God!