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40-49
Peggy Lynch
breast cancer
stage three

I was diagnosed with breast cancer about one month after relocating for a new job.  I was single and looking forward to the challenges the job had to offer.  One morning, while showering, I noticed a lump on my right breast.  The lump seemed to appear from nowhere and was huge.  I made an appointment with my primary care physician, whom I had never met.  She was wonderful.  She immediately sent me for a mammogram.  I remember thinking on the way to the mammogram: I'm 44 years old and this is going to be it. I was a wreck and got lost several times on the way to the lab.  Finally, I found the lab and was ushered to the machine and the technician performed the mammogram. The doctor who reviewed the results of the mammogram told me there was nothing to worry about.  I remember thinking this is good I can live with this diagnosis, although in my mind I knew that this wasn't the end of the story.  My primary care physician had, at the same time, set up an appointment with a surgeon for the following Monday.  When I went to the surgeon he stated, inspite of the mammogram, whatever it was it would need to be biopsied to be sure.  We did this a week later.  The surgeon could tell even before the lab confirmed that the lump was indeed cancerous. It is funny, I thought that the diagnosis would hit me like a ton of bricks and that I would crumple into this helpless waif.  However, the opposite occurred.  Once the doctor uttered those fateful words my mind started working overtime to figure out how we were going to beat this beast.  My thoughts turned to how and who I was going to inform of this latest news and how I was going to stay strong so that they wouldn't worry.  From that moment on I had an enemy and my job, along with family, friends and physicians, was to beat that enemy.

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