breast cancer: pre-surgery photos
(12/Feb/2009, age 34)

1. arms raised above head                   2. arms up: L larger than R                   3. arms up: showing dimple                4. arms down: dimple hard to see

The tumor was close to my chest and heavy, thus pulling on my breast from the inside and creating the "dimple". I couldn't feel a lump, and neither could my doctor but thank goodness he did his job and sent me to a clinic (although I had to wait 2 weeks for the appointment) for a mammogram, which led to an ultrasound and then a core needle biopsy - all on the same day. The black pen marks are where they intend to go in. There was also a small pen mark under my arm for the sentinel node biopsy. (SNB is when they take a few lymph nodes to check if the cancer has spread to the lymph glands.) You can see that my L breast is larger than my R, but it always had been and I put the change down to weight gain. Now I know that it's important to get ANY change checked!

If you would like to share YOUR breast cancer photographs (anonymously), please email them to tish.kirkland@hatiheri.com and I will post them on a sharing page. My aim is to create a resource to demystify breast cancer and what it involves.