I got sick in 2013. Prior to that, she had already treated her mother for the same diagnosis – breast cancer for six years. The doctor warned me that I was at risk, I knew that I should especially closely monitor my health.
Every four months I was examined and thought that I was ahead of the curve, I thought that even if I found something, it would be at an early stage … But cancer is an insidious thing that is very difficult to catch. It does not show itself in the early stages.
When I found out about the diagnosis, I was mentally prepared for it, but it was still stressful. While doctors are choosing treatment tactics, you are between heaven and earth. You are waiting for the verdict: is the cancer operable, do you have a chance … The doctor told me that it is operable.
There are many methods, depending on the stages and types of breast cancer. Some begin to be treated with radiation therapy, then surgery, then chemo. For someone, the tumor is reduced a little with chemistry, then it is removed, then radiation is prescribed. Someone is given chemotherapy for a whole year, the tumor is reduced, only then it is removed and rays are prescribed. The methods are different even with the same diagnosis, because the body of each is individual. It is not at all necessary that everyone goes through surgery-rays-chemo in exactly the same order as I do. Everyone has their own way.
I didn’t know who to turn to for help. I was very scared, I pulled myself out of despair, I found out everything about the disease myself. But it helped me that I had experience of treating this disease with my mother. I thought that it would be very difficult for other people who encounter this for the first time. And around the same time, for the first time, the idea arose of creating a volunteer organization that would unite people fighting this disease.
