At GE Healthcare, we are here for you. Wherever you are in your breast care journey.

Don’t Skip!

In case you missed my first blog post, my name is Cecilia, I’m 47 years old. I’m married to Ghazel and we have two young girls, Maya, 17, and Nora, 14.  I’m a Breast Cancer Survivor.

If you read my previous blog, we know each other a little bit better by now, so I can move on to the next steps for you, my friends, and my heroes. But if you are reading my blog posts for the first time, and you haven’t been touched by  breast cancer at this point, then I must say that I’m truly happy for you and this is the best way for me to make sure that this blog post changes your vision on self-awareness and self-esteem.

It’s magic! YOU and only you can prevent yourself from having a health misadventure by just by being aware and not looking away!   So please make sure you are getting your mammograms regularly.

And now, I am going to tell you about my story.  I will say it again, because it needs repeating.

I’m a Breast Cancer Survivor. It’s incredible how this disease changed me and gave birth to a better and stronger 2.0 version.  I wouldn’t not say it was an ‘amazing’ adventure every day, but I can promise you that there are so many great and incredible moments, some you discover by yourself, some because someone tells you what to do.  Because of that, it has become my Purpose.

I would do anything to turn back time, go back a few years to tell that little girl to make a few different choices, inspire and educate her more on self-awareness and make her listen and respect her body. I would go back to 2013 and make that appointment!

I know today, that it would have changed my life, it would have prevented me from living the most difficult period in my life. Not only for me but also for my husband, daughters, my parents, my sister, my brother, my best friends who care for me and love me so much. We just don’t realize early enough in a lifetime that we owe self-awareness and self-esteem to the ones that loves us. We care for them but guess what? They care for us as well! We’re upset when someone we love skips an appointment with the doctor when he/she is ill, so why do we skip such an important thing as getting a mammogram? Or simply push an appointment to a next day due to work or ’prioritizing’ someone else’s priorities? We push the appointment one day, one more, and even another day …even if we feel and see something is wrong when we look in the mirror. Doing this, is simply just forgetting that we are risking our own lives. Technology and doctors do save lives, but we are in charge of our lives!

In any event, this is what I did. I skipped a medical appointment, even though I could feel something was wrong. It cost me one year of heavy treatments and then 2 years of reconstruction and, of course, since then extension, controls. But no one told me that waiting 2 days can be life-changing.  In breast cancer for example the stage level can change only in two days.  The difference from non-metastatic to metastatic is that it can help you keep your breast(s) with surgery rather than losing it/them completely from a mastectomy.

What does this actually mean, other than tears and fears? It means that your life is now changed, and it becomes your full-time job to heal.

Let me explain with a few numbers what a breast cancer journey can look like. Here is mine:

Approximately 15 operations, mostly heavy. 6 Cell therapies, 30 radiotherapies, 5 years of hormonal therapy, approximately 270 appointments, thousands of euros of non-planned expenses, close to 2000 miles of travelling between sites and treatments, 9 different medical technologies, and dozens of times of my repeating my story over and over again.  Taking clothing off and showing my scars and empty body to strangers during examination again, over and over again.

And so many sad faces, and THIS is the most pain you’ll ever feel – those eyes and expressions when you have to announce those words to your kids and your family: “I have breast cancer.”

After reading my post, I truly hope and believe that you should no longer fear getting a mammogram. You should even feel relief, welcome and accept that “sensation” coming from breast compression because it can save your body and life!  And by the way, the more you accept it and are prepared, your pain threshold will naturally improve. Body and minds can achieve miracles!

Mammograms don’t hurt, they can generate some discomfort, but that is NOTHING compared to what you’ll experience if you follow my “bad” example of looking away.

If, on the other hand, you’re a survivor or on your breast cancer journey, I guess you’ll agree with me, that you probably would have done something different to change the course of happenings.  We need to push every woman to be self-aware, to make their appointments, to get their screenings. And we need to be present for every woman to make sure we support education while we know the positive impact it has on survival rates and how we can turn this life changing event to something new and beautiful.

Do you understand WHY you need to get a screening, or shall I say it again? 😊

You’re all heroes!

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