My story starts in late 2009, when I found a hard, misshapen lump in my left breast that I dismissed as a cyst and then forgot about until I went for my annual exam in February 2010. That was when I learned that the lump was cancer. I was mildly surprised by this news because there was no history of breast cancer in my family that I knew of. Also, I was 45 years old and had had several clear mammograms. I don't think I had one in 2009, though. Would things be different now if the cancer was caught sooner? I doubt it. I opted for a mastectomy with reconstruction, the results of which were disappointing. Years later, tired of the discomfort caused by the implant basically sitting on my left rib cage (I'm thin.) and dismayed by my freakish appearance, I had the implant removed. I'd resolved that whatever happened, I was not leaving this life with a sac of silicone in my chest. Now I'm mostly flat on the left side. I prefer it to the implant. Following the mastec
Every life story is a tragedy because the heroine must die in the end.