BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – MANY people are of the view that breast cancer only affects women who are over 40, but according to statistics from medicinenet.com only five percent of all breast cancer cases occur in women under 40.
Twana Rouse is one of those rare cases when in 2007, at the tender age of 25, she first felt a lump in her breast. Rouse said she was showering when she felt a lump, the size of a marble, under her right breast.
“I told my mom about it and she told me I should check it out. So I went to the doctor because I had an aunt that died from breast cancer and also another who was battling breast cancer,” she said.
Rouse said the doctor told her she had nothing to worry about and that it was not breast cancer.
“She said, ‘It’s called a mouse and it will disappear at the age of 30. When you’re 30 and it’s still there then you’ll have cause for concern, but you’re too young to have breast cancer…there’s nothing to worry about.’ That’s what the doctor told me,” Rouse explained.“I felt relieved and took the doctor’s word for it,” she added.Rouse said eight months later the lump had grown to the size of a golf ball.
“Now I saw an obvious difference in my right breast and there was also heat coming from the breast,” she said.
The young woman said that in late 2008 she went to see the first doctor she had visited, but that doctor was out of the country; so she went to another doctor to get his opinion on the matter.
“I needed a referral to get a mammogram, so I asked the doctor if he thought it was cancer and he said, ‘No.’ He said cancer starts from the armpits and that the lump was under my breast. He also said that the lump was under the nipple of my breast,” she added.
Rouse said the doctor asked how old she was when she gave birth to her two children. And after her response, he told her that the lump in her breast appeared because she gave birth to the children too close in age.
He however provided the referral for her to receive a mammogram.
Rouse said after completing the mammogram, her concern grew when she was further asked to do an ultra-sound.
You have breast cancer
“After the ultra-sound, the doctor sat me down and told me something isn’t right and the test indicated that I have cancer. Immediately I started crying but I was also ignorant and thought that once the lump was removed I’ll be fine…that is all I knew at the time. I didn’t know it was a long process,” she said.
The young mother, who graduated as a Trained Teacher Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College, said all she wanted to do was “get it over with” so that she could get back to her teaching career.
“He told me that this was not the time to worry about teaching and that I had to get myself taken care of. My thing was to get it over with and get back to my life. I never got angry at God for having the cancer or anything, but what really upset me was when I returned to the first doctor and told them what the outcome was, they were strong-headed and adamant about what they originally said. They said they never saw anyone in their 20’s gets diagnosed with cancer and that it’s only persons in their 40’s get cancer. The doctor said it’s a middle-age thing and it doesn’t occur in young people. My lump eventually became a breadfruit-size and it was very painful and the tumor was a Stage Three,” she explained.
Rouse further explained that she did an open biopsy in St. Kitts and when she travelled to New York she did a needle biopsy, which was very painful as it was done while she was awake.
In 2009, she underwent her first dose of chemotherapy, which she said would be completed in December 2010.
“Because my lump was that large, they couldn’t operate after I did the chemotherapy. I also had to do radiation which would shrink the lump and make it able for me to do the surgery,” she said.
A learning experience
Rouse said one of the lessons learnt from her experience is that whenever one is diagnosed with something, one must sure one educates oneself about it.
“Don’t wait on the doctors to tell you anything…go online and do your research,” she advised.
In an effort to shed some light on her case, Rouse said on her earlier visits to the two doctors, she informed them that one of her aunts had died from breast cancer and another was diagnosed with cancer.
“I relied on the doctors but I couldn’t do that anymore. Yes, the majority of persons that age get breast cancer according to statistics, but there are those who do get it at a really young age,” she said.
She noted that early detection is important and that she had met with persons in support groups who said they did not have any signs or symptoms but was diagnosed with breast cancer after doing their regular checkups.
Why should I put my life on hold for cancer?
Rouse is married to local gospel artiste Pepperranks with whom she shares two sons. She said since being diagnosed with breast cancer her life has been consumed with fighting the ailment and many times she has to leave her children and travel to New York for treatment.
She is currently undergoing her final chemotherapy treatment, and when it ends she would continue teaching and taking care of her family.
“Why should I put my life on hold for cancer? I’m not gonna sit down and wait. I want to get back on my schedule of things and incorporate my health with my goals,” she said.
Rouse said she found out that her breast cancer was formed by the amount of estrogen in her body and she now has to monitor her intake of it.
After her chemotherapy is completed, she will be on Tamoxifen medication which will control the intake of estrogen in her body. She will also have to avoid foods with high estrogen levels.
Rouse said her condition had become so bad that there were times when she could not speak because her throat felt as if it were on fire.
“When I spoke it was painful. I couldn’t take showers by myself. There were times when I couldn’t sleep for two to three days. The tumor had even burst my skin and my breast was bleeding. People would come to see me and I remember Pastor Brown from a Church in Cayon telling me there was light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
Cancer does not scare me
Rouse said not only did she want to get better but she had prepared herself for it.
“I had to envision getting out to work and taking care of my kids. I had to see myself out of the situation I was in. I expected to live so I had to act accordingly. If there were a negative around me I had to get rid of it; even if it meant people. I didn’t want anyone coming around me who would make me feel worse. I had to meditate on the word of God and I had to rely on what was in me.
“I didn’t want to hear about how many people died from breast cancer…I didn’t want to hear any statistics. My life could have been taken away from me and I needed to be filling my ears with good positive things. I surrounded myself with positive people and a healthy life,” she said.Undergoing the chemotherapy came with changes for Rouse.She said she had suffered headaches and has lost her hair.
“I lost my eyebrows and eyelashes. There were times that I didn’t look in the mirror. There were times it took me three days to eat a Bagel. I had no energy…I was so weak. But it’s important to have that support system even if it’s just that one person,” she added.
Rouse said if she was better informed about breast cancer it may not have reached as far as it did.
“We’re not immune to breast cancer; it could happen to anyone but it is not a death certificate. Now that I have changed my diet to eat healthier foods, I’m not as tired as I use to be and I feel much better. I am more aware of what I put in my body and I don’t procrastinate anymore.
“Cancer does not scare me anymore, I am giving it licks and being a Christian was a big part of me fighting it,” she said.
