Brutal truth behind family Mother's Day photo
As a busy first-time mother, Emma said everything 'happened so quickly'. One minute she was breastfeeding her baby girl, the next, she was being wheeled in for a mastectomy.
At just 35 years old, and an otherwise healthy young woman, the Northern Beaches local said there were no warning signs to alert her to the silent killer growing inside her – until that fateful day earlier this year when she found a lump in her right breast.
Emma, a music teacher, was quietly nursing her little girl, Chelsea, when she felt a small lump and assumed it was mastitis, an inflammation of the breast tissue, which can be caused by blocked milk ducts.
'I felt a lump and assumed that is was going to be mastitis because I'd had it quite a few times,' she told news.com.au. 'But then it kind of lingered around, didn't turn into anything and I seriously just thought I was about to get the world's worst case of mastitis.
'I didn't think it was anything sinister, I had no other signs and it's not really on your radar, thinking that it's breast cancer.'
The Sydney mother said she booked an appointment with her GP out of 'an abundance of caution', but never expected anything to come from it.
'I had a scan and knew something was wrong straight away,' she recalled. 'The technician kept popping out and I thought, 'this is not good'.'
Emma said everything happened within an eight-hour window. A mammogram was ordered and then her GP called her into her office at the close of business day, confirming it was breast cancer.
She then had different biopsies to determine what type of cancer she was facing, as well as an MRI at the surgeon's request. These biopsies of different areas of the breast tissue both came back cancerous, so Emma explained what was initially due to be a lumpectomy – a surgical procedure to remove a tumour or lump from the breast, while preserving the rest of the breast tissue – wasn't an option. It would need to be a mastectomy, or removal, of the right breast.
'When they came back with the tissue pathology, it actually came back with 20 individual cancers, so they were very shocked and also very grateful that we did the mastectomy and not just the lumpectomy because it would have just been a ticking time bomb really,' Emma explained.
'And then the rest of the tissue was all precancerous too, so it (her breast) had to go.'
Emma's doctor made sure to explain that the breast cancer wasn't caused by her pregnancy or breastfeeding, however it was likely that the cancer grew very quickly because she was breastfeeding, as the hormones were probably 'feeding the cancer'.
'Because I was still breastfeeding, we had to wean (Chelsea) cold turkey because they can't operate while you're still breastfeeding,' she explained.
Emma said a friend suggested she and her husband, Phillippe, mark the occasion of her final time breastfeeding her daughter. So the young family packed the champagne, headed down to the beach, and sat on the sand while Emma breastfed Chelsea for the last time.
After her mastectomy last month, Emma was in hospital for Mother's Day and was visited by her own mum, sister Hannah and daughter Chelsea. Trying to make light of the situation, she said she joked with her husband that she'd like a 'boob job' for Mother's Day.
'You've got to laugh sometimes. If you don't, you'll cry.'
Despite the huge ordeal, Emma said she considers herself very lucky, as they caught the cancer early, before it spread to the nodes.
'Fortunately it's Stage 1 and Grade 2 in aggressiveness, which again is really lucky, because for a lot of young women they often get more aggressive types of breast cancer so I'm fortunate that it's not.'
The Sydney mother admits the health scare has thrown their plans to extend their family into complete chaos. She underwent an emergency egg retrieval last month, while awaiting one test to come back from the US which will determine her need for chemotherapy.
'If I have to have chemo, that's it for fertility, but if not then I'll start hormone therapy immediately which puts you into medically induced menopause,' she said.
After only managing to get one embryo during last month's egg retrieval, the couple has now started the process immediately again, with 'just enough time' to try one more time before Emma's treatment continues.
'The idea that we might not have another child is really sad, especially when my egg retrieval didn't go well, I felt pretty sad on that day. I've been pretty upbeat otherwise,' the brave Sydneysider said.
'The first time we were struggling to fall pregnant, it was about our identity – will we ever be parents? Will we have a family? Now it's not so much about that because we are parents and we are so lucky. But we want to give her a sibling, and I think when you go through a serious health thing, you don't know what's ahead and so to have a little buddy for our daughter to have by her side, is more what we want, it's not so much for us,' Emma said.
Breast cancer cases increasing at a 'concerning' rate
Emma's story is similar to that of thousands of Australian women every year. Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting Australian women and the second-most-common diagnosed cancer in Australia.
According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, 58 people are diagnosed with breast cancer in Australia every day. That equates to over 21,000 people each year.
Around 1,000 young Aussie women aged under 40 are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, equivalent to about 3 young women each day.
Approximately one Aussie woman under the age of 40 is expected to die each week from breast cancer. The Breast Cancer Network Australia (BCNA) has called the increase in cases among young women 'concerning' and 'indicative of a national trend'.
Worldwide, there are now an estimated 528,018 young adults living with breast cancer, and with more young women being diagnosed with the deadly disease than ever before, women have been urged to speak up wit their doctor if they have any concerns.
Emma's sister, Hannah, is completing her first half marathon in September, taking part in Sydney's first-ever Carman's Fun Run to raise vital funds for BCNA.
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