Breast Cancer: Survivor’s Story
C
ancer affects millions of people around the globe every year. In October, special focus is put on breast cancer awareness, an illness that affects both women and men. For women, it is estimated that one in eight will develop breast cancer in their lives. On average, every two minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States. For the month of October, the Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks and the National Breast Cancer Foundation encourage everyone to screen and seek out education on early detection and treatment of breast cancer. An important part of education comes from sharing experiences of living with breast cancer. Kristee Hinson of Lebanon, Mo., encourages women to follow medical advice on screening for breast cancer after her experience learning she had breast cancer at the age of 43. Hinson, a native of Stockton, Mo., was going about her regular life keeping up with her four sons when she discovered a lump. “It felt large. I waited about two weeks before even mentioning it to anyone,” Hinson said. “I began to notice it got larger and I could easily
Story by Annie Lisenby Smith
A year after beginning her breast cancer journey, Hinson is a survivor and healthy.
see it. My nipple also began to invert. I had always remembered for years my gynecologist telling me to watch for that.” A challenge for women is that they might be reluctant to discuss the specifics of signs of breast cancer beyond a lump. The Mayo Clinic adds these additional signs or symptoms of breast cancer: (1) change in size, shape, or appearance of a breast; (2) changes to the skin over the breast, such as dimpling; (3) peeling, scaling, crusting, or flaking of the pigmented area of skin
surrounding the nipple or breast skin; (4) nipple inversion; or (5) redness or pitting of the skin over the breast, like the skin of an orange. As is recommended by cancer organizations and doctors, Hinson made an appointment with her doctor to discuss the discovered lump. “She sent me for a mammogram, I hadn’t yet had one. Then they did an ultrasound,” Hinson said. “The doctor called me back in for an MRI. Then I had a biopsy. My official diagnosis was Invasive Lobular Carcinoma Stage 2b.”
ConnectionMO.com | Connection Magazine | 37