“Finding a lump in your breast does not always equate to cancer” – This is Amy’s Story….
This is an unbelievable story of sheer bravery, strength, positivity, hope, overcoming obstacles and inspiration. Amy deconstructs the fear associated with finding a lump in your breast, encourages women to check themselves and repeats the fact that finding a lump does not always mean the worst. A trojan warrior who we could all learn a few things from. Her attitude towards everything she’s been through over the past 13 years personally blows my mind.
Amy (35) found her first non-cancerous lump at the age of 19 and has been having surgeries to remove them ever since. One of her biggest lumps removed was 8cm in diameter. She recently got engaged and was dreading wedding dress shopping up until her most recent and invasive surgery a few weeks ago.
Amy told me her incredible story from the get go, “I have actively googled a fair bit over the years and it says that 1 in 9 women will have an episode of breast cancer and 1 in 4 lumps will be cancerous but I cannot find anywhere that tells me how many people present to a hospital for an assessment with a lump in their breast. So I’m kind of going, well if only one 1 in 4 lumps is cancerous then there’s 75% of people, granted they’re prob not like me where they end up getting as many surgeries but there’s 75% of people that go through this and end up not having a cancerous lump.”
“The first lump I found was in right breast and I was 19 or 20. It was a little marble right in my cleavage”
She explains finding her first lump at the age of 19, “The first lump I found was in right breast and I was 19 or 20. It was a little marble right in my cleavage. I said it to my Mum and went straight to hospital in Dublin. I met a lovely surgeon there and he said that it needed to come out and it was nothing to worry about. In a matter of weeks, it was taken out and my only memory of it was a lovely scar in my cleavage. For about the first 4 years it actually looked like teeth marks. Anything I’d wear, it didn’t even have to be low cut you’d could see it and often times people would ask about it. I was always very upfront and said what it was.”
“In a matter of weeks, it was taken out and my only memory of it was a lovely scar in my cleavage. For about the first 4 years it actually looked like teeth marks”
As the years went on Amy found more and more lumps, “I graduated from college in 2008 and was living on the Cork/Waterford border when I found another lump and went straight to the GP. I was initially sent to Waterford for assessment. I just wasn’t happy coming out of there, not because I wasn’t taken seriously, just having been though it before, I came away thinking I’m not happy about this experience. I’m the type of person who’d always do a background check and I had read about the breast clinic in Cork University Hospital (CUH). I went back to the GP and asked if they could send me to CUH for assessment. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world because the very first day I went to CUH for the assessment, I was assigned to this amazing surgeon, Louise Kelly, WHO IS FABULOUS. That was the first time I met Louise and I’ve been in her care ever since.”
“If you ever find a lump or abnormality, it is fairly normal that they’ll do what’s called a triple assessment”
Amy explains the process of what happens if you find a lump in your breast, “I can’t speak for every breast clinic in the country, but I have a lot of experience in CUH. If you ever find a lump or abnormality, it is fairly normal that they’ll do what’s called a triple assessment. So what that involves is, a surgeon who’ll do a physical examination, then they’ll do imaging so if you’re under 35, it’s usually an ultrasound. There was a lot in the press lately about breast checks being paused because of the pandemic. The reason they’re only offering mammograms now is because if you’re under 35 and particularly if you’ve not had children, your breast tissue is very very dense, and a mammogram won’t generally get a clear reading. Despite having had a bazillion triple assessments I only had my first mammogram this year, a week before being 35”.
“It’s almost embarrassing to say, I can’t remember how many fibroadenomas I’ve had and how many I’ve had removed. It’s just the nature of it”
In 2009, Amy got diagnosed with having benign tumours called fibroadenomas, “I started to get fibroadenomas which are often referred to as breast mice or marbles because they feel very very smooth. You can feel them under the skin but they’ll sometimes feel like they move a little bit. You can be very pre-disposed to them which I was and usually you’ll grow out of them by the time you’re 30. I didn’t and there does not seem to be any reason why. My mum or her sisters never had them either. I just seem to have them in spades. My attitude when I first went to see my surgeon Louise was that if she felt it was better removing them, they’d be removed rather than them sitting there for 20 years and me worrying if it was something sinister. It’s almost embarrassing to say, I can’t remember how many fibroadenomas I’ve had and how many surgeries I’ve had to remove them. It’s just the nature of it.”
“The lump had gone from being under the 2cm level to the size of a large free range egg so what ultimately was an 8cm tumour was in my left breast”
Amy describes the size of the fibroadenomas, “With fibroadenomas, if they stay under a certain size they’ll just leave them there. For me if they went above 2cm, Louise would remove them and if there were others in the catchment area when she was removing one, she’d take them out too. So the first surgery I had with Louise was in 2009 which was for fibroadenomas then simultaneously to having one removed from my right breast I had others in my left breast but they were always small and they kept them checked.”
“In 2010 very very rapidly my left breast seemed to be getting bigger and I had a lump which grew at a rate of knots”
In 2010, Amy had a very rare tumour removed which was 8cm in size, “In 2010 very very rapidly my left breast seemed to be getting bigger and I had a lump which grew at a rate of knots. I remember ringing the clinic and saying this is getting bigger faster and Louise had me straight back in. In about 12 weeks, it had gone from being under the 2cm level to the size of a large free range egg so what ultimately was an 8cm tumour was growing in my left breast. The lump itself is not remotely painful. Automatically every bit of lump or tissue taken out is sent for testing. That lump appeared to be very similar to a fibroadenoma but it was actually a different thing called a Phyllodes tumour and it was 8cm in diameter. I now know a Phyllodes tumour is incredibly rare especially in young people. I was 25 at the time and they grow quite rapidly so I actually had to go in a month later for another surgery for them to remove the margins just to be sure they had completely got every last cell otherwise it would grow back.”
Shortly after Amy’s Phyllodes tumour was removed, she was referred to a plastic surgeon, “After I had the tumour removed and because there was a major size difference in my breasts, an 8cm cavity, I was referred for review with a plastic surgeon, Jason Kelly. I first met Jason 10 years ago when I was 25 and he explained to me at the time what he could do. I knew from my own conversations with Louise that my breasts were not mature. Your breasts generally are not mature until you’re about 30 odd, that’s why the tissue is dense and it can still change and will again change even more if you have children. There was also a good chance that I would need further fibroadenomas removed which I did and at that point, I could end up getting cosmetic surgery to correct the left breast but ultimately it could end up dramatically different to the right one. The other thing about cosmetic or corrective surgery with the breasts is they say that you may not be able to breastfeed. And at the time, when I was 25, I had no major thoughts on having children so I just kind of felt, it wasn’t necessary at the time.”
“That lump appeared to be very similar to a fibroadenoma but it was actually a different thing called a Phyllodes tumour and it was 8cm in diameter”
Amy describes the healing process after her surgeries, “It was always day surgery under general anaesthetic up until the surgery I had last week. My breasts are an incredible example of Louise’s work as I do not scar that badly. I actually heal incredibly well. Where possible and when she is going into same breast a number of times, she’ll try go back in over an old scar to minimise the scar tissue. You have to wear a sports bra pretty much 24/7 for a number of weeks afterwards to give the breast as much support and compression as possible. I’m sure if you asked my family, they have found it worrying over the years but I’ve always felt that I’m not going to worry about it being sinister until the day I’m told it’s sinister.”
“I remember thinking it’s not the end of the world, it’s just something I need to get over. I’ve had this immense luxury of a breast clinic team that I have ultimate faith in”
Amy recounts the surgeries she’s gone through over the years, “I think it’s about 8 or 9 surgeries. I’m aware that I can sound so flippant about it and I know it’s a very scary thing for people. After one of my very first surgeries I was in my cubicle and you can’t help but over hear things. There was a girl not much older than me. She was in for a double mastectomy that she had waited for because she had 6-week-old twins. I remember at the time thinking I’m getting a lump removed and not a breast. Yes, it’s not a nice experience but I’m a firm believer you can only deal with what’s on your own plate. I remember thinking it’s not the end of the world, it’s just something I need to get over. I’ve had this immense luxury of a breast clinic team that I have ultimate faith in.”
“We are all told about early detection for breast cancer which is absolutely massively important but there’s more to breast care than just breast cancer”
Amy gives an insight into the excellent care she’s received from the breast clinic over the past 13 years, “Once I had the Phyllodes tumour removed, I was in the breast clinic every 3 months. Even when I’ve found new lumps, I’ve never felt worried about it. I’ve never worried if it’s going to be breast cancer which may be easy for me to say because I’ve never been diagnosed with breast cancer but the team up there have looked after me so well for last 13 years. So if the worst case happened, all that’s going to change is what they’re going to do for me, not how good my care is, which it’s a luxury in itself. We are all told about early detection for breast cancer which is absolutely massively important but there’s more to breast care than just breast cancer.”
“Over the past 5 years for the most part my fibroadenomas settled down. About 3 years ago, I graduated into only annual visits at the breast clinic which is a big thing”
Over the past 12 months, Amy noticed how her left breast began to increase in size, “Over the past 5 years for the most part my fibroadenomas settled down. But the left breast, the one that had the large Phyllodes tumour started getting progressively bigger, so I knew I was due a check-up. I was doing a phone consult on 30 April 2020 with the breast clinic and I had noticed over the past 12 months that the left breast was getting a lot bigger. It was more as the Spring weather came, I began to notice it more. I’m an Agricultural Nutritionist so I’m on the farm every day and in the Winter, I tend to live in base layers, waterproofs and wellies and I’d nearly always wear a sports bra. As the weather was getting better I noticed that bras that would fit my right breast perfectly were only fitting two thirds of my left breast. So I had my phone consult and told them that there was quite a big discrepancy after occurring. The next week I went up to do a face to face consult with Louise and she suggested doing a tripple assessment.”
“When I saw Louise face to face, she saw the difference I was talking about immediately and she told me it was time to go and have another chat with the plastic surgeon because I was at the point where I was going to start having back issues”
“When I saw Louise face to face, she saw the difference I was talking about immediately and she told me it was time to go and have another chat with the plastic surgeon, Jason Kelly because I was at the point where I was going to start having back issues. Louise had already gone through what he would most likely do to correct the difference. When I had seen him 10 years ago, I had what is known as asymmetry so my two breasts were different at a point which they would kind of where it would be noticeable but this time it had progressed to a point of gross asymmetry.”
“I thought the prosthetics were only for people who had had a mastectomy and not for people with major issues like mine”
Amy’s life began to change when she was introduced to a prosthetic breast, “One of the amazing things that happened in the breast clinic before I left that day was that I was seen by a prosthetics nurse. I thought the prosthetics were only for people who had had a mastectomy and not for people with major issues like mine. I walked in there not being able to wear a normal bra or wear any bra really because they were so uncomfortable. She fitted me with a prosthetic for my right breast which brought the size up to match the left one so all of a sudden I could go back to wearing normal t-shirts and vest tops. When I had the prosthetic in my bra, you couldn’t see it but it automatically made me balanced. To be honest, I didn’t realise how much the imbalance was bothering me until they gave me the prosthetic. To put it into context, I weighed it this morning and it weights 250grams.”
In September of this year, Amy visited the plastic surgeon, “I went to see Jason Kelly and he said it aboslutely needs to be fixed so what he proposed was a breast reduction and lift on the left hand side which would match it to my right side with the other major benefit being that the area that he would be doing the removal, he would be able to get at the couple of little fibroadenoma that were still in there at the same time.”
“To be honest, I didn’t realise how much the imbalance was bothering me until they gave me the prosthetic. To put it into context, I weighed it this morning and it weights 250grams”
Amy’s most recent and biggest surgery has been the most life changing, “It’s a fairly big surgery in the sense that the scar is like an anchor, so there’s a lot of cutting involved. I was patiently for the surgery date and expected about 6-7 week’s notice. Then all of a sudden about 3 weeks ago, I got the letter telling me the date so it was very very quick once the ball got rolling.”
“Last Wednesday, I had the corrective surgery, It’s the first time I’ve been in hospital for a couple of years for a breast surgery. It was the first one I had gone through with my fiancé Darragh”
This is the first surgery Amy has experienced with her fiancé Darragh, “Last Wednesday, I had the corrective surgery, It’s the first time I’ve been in hospital for a couple of years for a breast surgery. It was the first one I had gone through with my fiancé Darragh. It’s interesting because one of your questions to me was about relationships and emotions and it was funny because previously, I’ve always been like ah yeah whatever it’s getting done. But a couple of nights before this surgery, I had a bit of a wobble. I was crying and saying to Darragh, what if you don’t like the new boobs?! Now it’s worth noting that poor Darragh had to get over the shock of the fact that we were making the big one smaller not the small one bigger. He basically said, ‘I love your boobs, your boobs are your boobs and I’ll still love them just as much’. He talked me down and said don’t be ridiculous. I realised that as cool as I am about the whole thing, it does still strike you from time to time.”
“Now it’s worth noting that poor Darragh had to get over the shock of the fact that we were making the big one smaller not the small one bigger”
Amy’s shares her joy of having boobs the same size for the first time in her life, “I was going into this like it’s just another breast surgery, it just has to be done. Probably the best thing that could have happened me in hospital was, I was in a ward with another girl around the same age as me. She had got cosmetic implants. That evening the two of us had the craic in the room. Now it’s worth noting we were both high as kites but she was so excited because she had boobs for the first time in her life and it made me excited as even now I still smile when I look down because my boobs are the same size for the first time in my life. Over the years I’d have said to you that psychologically this didn’t bother me whereas I think I had kind of disregarded my breasts a little bit.”
“We got engaged in June and the one thing I wasn’t really excited about was wedding dress shopping because firstly I’d be able to tell you all the styles that I wouldn’t be able to wear’‘
Amy explains how she no longer dreads wedding dress shopping, “The first hint there was a psychological aspect for me was when we got engaged in June. The one thing I wasn’t really excited about was wedding dress shopping because firstly I’d be able to tell you all the styles that I wouldn’t be able to wear. In the last week now I am looking at dresses that I wouldn’t remotely have considered before because all of a sudden I have cleavage that sits up normally. It’s surprised me in the sense that I didn’t realise how big of a deal it was to me until it was fixed. I’ve a new found appreciation of for the psychological benefit of the cosmetic corrective surgeries.”
“I have an injunction of stitches. I have a perpendicular point at which two incisions meet and as a result that’s very delicate”
Amy’s most recent surgery has been the most intense, “I’m looking at a solid 6 week recovery. In the immediate aftermath the one thing that you never realise is how much your breasts are impacted by the smallest arm movements. If you have stitches in your breasts, no matter how small your breasts are even if you have lovely perky sticky uppy breasts they still hang so that’s where you have to be careful. Pull and push motion can catch you by surprise. I have an injunction of stitches. I have a perpendicular point at which two incisions meet and as a result that’s very delicate. I mean that being said, I’m not too bad. I’ve had a couple of showers and washed my hair and I’ve been out for a couple of walks.”
“Over the years and this week it’s been said to me once or twice by people meaning well, they say aw but it’s not cancer and I just kind of smile and sort of feel like saying yeah that’s grand but they still cut into my tit”
Amy says sometimes people don’t understand the invasiveness this had had not only on her body but on her life, “Over the years and this week it’s been said to me once or twice by people meaning well, they say ‘aw but it’s not cancer’, and I just kind of smile and sort of feel like saying yeah that’s grand but they still cut into my tit. I’ve gone through plenty of moaning and tears but the flip side to it is, I have the luxury of going through this and not being sick.”
“If you feel something that feels different to you, and you’re unsure about it. There’s no doctor or no breast clinic, no nurse or no surgeon in the world going to tell you you’ve wasted their time by getting it checked out”
Amy gives her advice for breast care in general, “We can google all we want about breast cancer and don’t get me wrong, that’s hugely important but there’s people out there having surgeries like I’ve had done every day of the week. Like I said earlier, there is more to breast care than just breast cancer which is not to dimmish cancer by any means. It’s very important I feel that you can’t dimmish anyone else’s breast care just because it’s not cancer. Human nature is always going to send people to the worst case scenario like Dr. Google if they find a lump. I always think if one person hearing about me having a bazillion boob surgeries none of which are cancer will make them check their own breasts, then it’s worth it.”
“A triple assessment is a very important and beneficial thing to be sent for if you find a lump but equally it does not equate to cancer”
Finding a lump in your breast does not always equate to cancer as Amy explains, “A triple assessment is a very important and beneficial thing to be sent for if you find a lump but equally it does not equate to cancer. I know there are people out there every day of the week and they may find a lump. With the current pandemic, some people may have kids home from school unexpectedly or they’re out of work and there’s probably an element of I can’t cope anymore I don’t want to know. That’s why it needs to be normalised so if you’re worried go get it checked and chances are you’re going to get a phone call saying you’re absolutely fine.”
“If you feel something that feels different to you, and you’re unsure about it. There’s no doctor or no breast clinic, no nurse or no surgeon in the world going to tell you you’ve wasted their time by getting it checked out”
She says you should always trust your own judgement, “If you feel something that feels different to you, and you’re unsure about it. There’s no doctor or no breast clinic, no nurse or no surgeon in the world going to tell you you’ve wasted their time by getting it checked out.”