Despite her family history, Christa had to insist on being screened as a baseline when she was only 35.
Transcript
I think I’d had one (mammogram) done before and that was when I was about 34 years old. My mum had it (breast cancer) when she was 45, and my grandma and all of my aunts had had it as well. So I kind of thought that I would probably get it, but I didn’t think it would be for a long period of time. But I thought I would just set a baseline up just so we know what my breast tissue was like and we knew what to look for. Then my husband and I had started talking about maybe having kids. So I thought I should probably get a test done because I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do that for a few years after I was pregnant and when I was breastfeeding. So I thought I would just go and get another test, like a yearly test done just to see if everything was okay. I was 35 at that time. When I called in to try and get it done, there was quite a bit of resistance to do it, because they thought I was too young. So I had to be a little bit more forceful about it. But I was able to go in and they asked if there was a chance that I could be pregnant. And at that point in time I think I had been off the pill for a couple of weeks or a month or something like that. It was probably about a month. I was supposed to get my menstrual cycle in a couple of weeks and so I said, “Well there’s a slight possibility,” but I’d been on the pill for 20 years or something like that and I hadn’t been off of the pill for long. So we were just kind of joking around and they said, “You know this time we’ll just do an ultrasound of the tissue and then we won’t actually do the mammogram.” So they decided to do that just in case there was a chance I was pregnant. I had had no tests done or anything and they found a lump at some point in time. I was the last appointment at the end of the day and so they said, “You know, normally we would just take a biopsy of this right now but, because it’s the last appointment in the day, we’ll do this tomorrow.” So I think I came in the next day or the day after and they took a biopsy of it and I didn’t really think too much of it because I just didn’t think it would be that soon.
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- Messages to others – ChristaAs a teacher, Christa noticed that some children think they can't do something when it is new. She encourages others to give yourself time and then things may be easier.
- How it affects family and friends – ChristaChrista learned that she had breast cancer on the same day that she discovered she was pregnant. She thinks she could have shared this in a better way with others.
- Challenging emotions – ChristaChrista experienced postpartum depression right after her breast cancer treatment.
- Understanding the diagnosis – ChristaKnowing that there is breast cancer in her family Christa wanted to have a baseline screening before getting pregnant.
- Testing and diagnosis – ChristaBeing diagnosed with breast cancer and finding out she was pregnant on the same day was difficult for Christa.
- First symptoms – ChristaDespite her family history, Christa had to insist on being screened as a baseline when she was only 35.
- Sexuality, femininity and intimacy – ChristaChrista and her partner were ultimately able to resolve these difficulties.
- Recurrent and metastatic (advanced) breast cancer – ChristaFacing the possibility of more bad news was extremely difficult for Christa.
- Follow-up care and the risk of recurrence – ChristaChrista's concerns led her to insist on additional follow-up after being told it was no longer necessary.