Breast cancer: discovery and diagnosis - Jan 2021
Kia ora! Before I publish the first full episode, I think it will be helpful to provide some detail about how I discovered and was diagnosed with breast cancer. Hopefully someone reading this will be inspired to check their own boobs (or nuts!). In mid-2020 I was told that the reason for my tubby belly was not just "middle-aged spread" but was in fact a uterine fibroid . Fibroids are non-cancerous growths in the uterus, in my case, in the top wall of the uterus. It was thought mine could be due to excess estogen, and I was put on the list for an abdominal hysterectomy to remove my uterus, cervix, and fallopian tubes - keeping my ovaries intact. The fibroid reeeally began making its presence felt in the last few months of its existence, affecting the exercise I could do (goodbye, running), sapping my energy, and causing a fair bit of pain in the lead up to my period. I looked quite pregnant by the end and hadn't been near a waistband in a while :) I don't have heal...