Don't Ignore the Pain: What My Breast Cancer Symptoms Actually Felt Like

Everyone told me breast cancer doesn't hurt. They were wrong, at least when it came to my body. I nearly missed my diagnosis because of that myth, and I don't want that to happen to you.

IT STARTED WITH A BOIL

I came back from Jamaica in December 2020 after burying my mother, who had passed from lung cancer, never smoked a day in her life. A few months later, I noticed a boil under my left breast. If you're Jamaican, you know what we do with boils, we dress them. I applied black dressing and it created a hole under my chest. I panicked, went to the doctor, they removed the tissue, not cancerous. I moved on.

JULY 2021: THE PAIN THAT WOULDN'T STOP

A few months later, my right breast started hurting. Pain in the breast, pain in the armpit. I went to my doctor and told him exactly that.

He brushed me off. Said it was probably a tight undergarment.

I was a 38 Triple D. I had no reason to be wearing a tight undergarment. I left his office and kept it moving. But the pain did not keep moving. It stayed.

The more I ate certain things, the more the pain increased. Ice cream was my comfort food, half a tub at a time. Every time I indulged, the pain got worse. But I kept eating, and I kept ignoring it.

FINALLY GETTING ANSWERS

A friend told me to go back to the doctor. So I walked back in and said: "I came here a few months ago. I told you my breast was hurting. You said it was a tight undergarment. It has not stopped."

My doctor sent me for a mammogram. What followed was about four mammograms, three ultrasounds, and a biopsy. The biopsy confirmed it: breast cancer.

The armpit pain suddenly made sense. There were cancerous tissues in my lymph nodes. By the time I had surgery, I was stage three. They removed 18 lymphatic nodes. Six of them had cancer.

WHAT I WANT YOU TO KNOW

People kept telling me cancer doesn't hurt. From my experience, it absolutely can. My breast hurt. My armpit hurt. My body was telling me something was wrong, and for months I either ignored it or was dismissed by a doctor.

Don't do what I did.

If you feel pain in your breast, even a small tingling, go and get it checked. If that doctor dismisses you, find another one. That is what I should have done. I should have advocated for myself.

You deserve a doctor who listens. You deserve answers. And you deserve to catch this early.

Walk good, until next time.

Opal McKnight-Kleinsasser