Hi! My name is Natalia, I'm 26, and I was diagnosed back in August with stage 4 Breast Cancer, which spread all over my back, pelvic area and tail bone. I am currently waiting for my surgery on the 28th of this month, to have my left breast completely removed.
As long as I can remember, femininity, my trendy clothes and going out almost all the time was my life. I never worried about seeing the doctor or ever getting a check up. My life was party after party. I have always had a live for the moment type of attitude.
I always told my mom and my friends you only live once: do what you want, who cares about tomorrow? Boy, did my mind and my attitude totally change.
I felt a lump in my left breast and I didn't pay any attention to it. Time went by and it started to get bigger and bigger. I brought it to my docto'rs attention, and she said that it was an infected fibroid cell, that I was way too young to have breast cancer and I shouldn't worry about it. She prescribed me some anti-infection pills and anti-inflamation meds as well. I took the pills and noticed no difference in the lump.
I started to notice that the top of my breast looked like an orange peel, it was a darker tone of skin than the rest of my breast and it was scrunched together and it felt like the skin of orange. At that point I knew something was wrong. My back also started affecting me really badly, to the point that some days I could not get out of bed to go to work because the pain would not allow me to stand up.
I went to my doctor again and she suggested that I should get an ultrasound and also referred me to an orthopedic surgeon for my back. I made my appointments and my doctor gave me pain killers for my back pain until we could figure out what was wrong. I finally get my ultrasound and I will never forget the results.
The word still haunt me day after day. I was with my mom and my boyfriend, I can't remember what I was doing, where we all were, the day, the time or if it was raining or sunny, but my phone rings and it was my doctor telling me the results came back and I had breast cancer and that I should get help as soon as possible. I get off the phone and tell my mom I have breast cancer, we all went silent, no one in the car said a word.
I started going to the Rose Center for breast cancer and started getting all my lab work done. It turned out that I had stage 4 breast cancer, and we had to move quickly because I was in bad shape. I was also seeing my doctor for my back, he told me that something was wrong with my disk, and I needed a steroid injection. I had my surgery for the injection, but things didn't get better, they got worse.
I started running fevers every single day, and I stopped eating. I weighed 127 pounds and in a matter of a week and a half I was almost skin and bones, losing several pounds a day. As I wait for MD Anderson, which is a well known cancer hospital, I can no longer walk.
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