In 2011, two weeks shy of my 40th birthday, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Having the luxury of health insurance, I saw my internist after feeling a large lump on my left breast. He referred me to a breast surgeon at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles where an ultrasound showed that the lump was a large, angular and concerning mass.
From there, my path from diagnosis to treatment moved rapidly. The surgeon conducted a biopsy and scheduled me for a mammogram that same day. Two days later I got the results — Stage 2 invasive breast cancer that had spread to my lymph nodes.
The diagnosis threw me for a loop, but with a long political campaign background, fighting is in my DNA, and I immediately slipped into full campaign mode in an effort to beat it. Five and half months of aggressive chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, reconstruction and 20 radiation sessions later, I’m close to doing just that.
My doctors and multiple breast cancer patients I met over the past eight months assured me that my diagnosis was “not a death sentence.” For me, they are right. I am very lucky. I am lucky that I caught my cancer before it had metastasized to other parts of my body and before it became untreatable. I am lucky I have health insurance and was able to quickly seek a diagnosis and start treatment immediately. And, I am lucky that I live in a large metropolitan area with access to any number of world-class hospitals and doctors.
Unfortunately, far too many women in this country diagnosed with breast cancer are not so lucky. They are low-income, uninsured, out of work, or living in rural areas lacking access to many health care options. By the time many of these women get diagnosed and seek treatment, they are getting a death sentence. A 2011 report (PDF) by the American Cancer Society found that the death rate from breast cancer is higher in poor counties and that low-income women are at a greater risk of dying from breast cancer due to lack of access to breast screenings and advanced treatments. These are deaths that could be avoided with proper screening and diagnosis. » Read more: Every Woman Should Have Access to Early Breast Health Education and Screenings
