AN EMERGING CANCER:
SURVIVORS ADVOCATE FOR WOMEN’S HEALTH AND AWARENESS
In January 2015, Michelle Forney started to experience intense pain and itching of her right breast. Several years earlier, she had undergone breast enhancement surgery using textured implants. Understanding that implants could present complications, she immediately made an appointment with her primary care physician, who invited a dermatologist to examine her. “I was going to my physician pretty frequently, and every time I’d ask, ‘What’s going on with me?” says Forney. “Every time, I would receive a different diagnosis. ‘Oh, you have shingles’ and get treated for six months, then ‘Oh you may have a virus,’ then get treated for a year. Nothing was helping.” For two more years Forney endured pain, itching and other symptoms. She received two mammograms and even presented her symptoms to her plastic surgeon, where she received a third diagnosis of low-grade capsular contracture and received a fee schedule to remove and replace her implants. She knew things were getting serious when her right breast started to swell and grew approximately 30 percent larger than her left. “My plastic surgeon suggested I have my implants removed and replaced. By that time my health really started to decline — I was constantly fighting a cold, I was fatigued, my eyesight was worsening — but financially, a removal was not an option for me.” Running out of options, she decided to visit her OB-GYN and was referred to a breast care specialist. From there, she received a series of tests that finally revealed her diagnosis of a cancer she’d never heard of before: breast implantassociated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL).
“ My plastic surgeon suggested I have my implants removed and replaced. By that time my health really started to decline — I would constantly be fighting a cold, I was fatigued, my eyesight was worsening — but financially, a removal was not an option for me.”
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