Julie Tatlock

Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, I thought it was the perfect time to share my story. In August, I was diagnosed with Stage II Triple Negative Breast Cancer. It was a shock to say the least. Not only was it a shock, but it was a whirlwind of doctor appointments and procedures. I had a mammogram, a mammogram ultrasound, a core biopsy, a MRI, a pet scan, surgery to install a chemo port along with sentinel lymph node biopsy. Diagnosis to treatment took place in about 3 crazy weeks. Triple Negative Breast Cancer is a very aggressive form of Breast Cancer so it is something you do not want to mess with. My prognosis is good. I started chemotherapy August 26th. I have 8 rounds of chemo and I should be finished sometime in January. After chemo I will have surgery to remove the tumor - you may ask why not have surgery before chemo? Well, the reason is, it is better to shrink the tumor first so that when I do have surgery it will be less invasive. After surgery, I will have 6 weeks of radiation. Then, hopefully I will be cancer free. However, to be truly cancer free, I will have to be cancer free for 5 years and even with that I will always have a risk that the cancer will come back. The risk gets lower with each passing year. Why am I telling my story? Because Breast Cancer is preventable with early detection! My cancer was caught early, but like so many women, I waited. I discovered a lump in my breast sometime in the Spring. And I am very diligent about getting yearly mammograms and doing self-breast exams because my sister is a 10 year Triple Negative Breast Cancer Survivor. And still, when I felt my lump I waited. I thought it's not a lump lump, it is probably a fatty lump. And I waited. My yearly mammogram should have been scheduled in May. I waited until August. I have no idea if my diagnosis would have been different. Would I have been a Stage O or a Stage 1? Who knows? I can't look back at the what if I went to the doctor as soon as I discovered my lump. What I can do is tell my story and hopefully, if you discover a lump in your breast you won't wait.