Most breast cancer patients receive treatment as outpatients, so RN April Addison seldom saw them at work. Since July, however, she’s seen one every time she looks in the mirror.
Although 12% of all cancer cases worldwide are diagnosed as breast cancer, and globally it is the most common type, Addison wasn’t prepared for the news she received. Only about 9% of all new cases of breast cancer in the United States are found in women younger than 45, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I’m pretty active and healthy. I’m 32. I just couldn’t understand why this was happening,” the Northside Forsyth nurse said. “What was going on?”
What was going on
“So I had felt a lump in my breast near my nipple, but it was a small lump,” Addison said. “I had felt it for a few months, but I thought it was my milk coming in.”
Addison was near term with her second child, so the lump didn’t worry her until “one day, I don’t know, it started hurting really bad and hurt for maybe 30 minutes and then stopped,” she said.
At her 39th week checkup, she told her doctor about the lump and the pain. Things progressed quickly from there.
“So the next day I want to get the ultrasound, and they were asking me if I’ve been sick or had I had a vaccine recently, because there were three lymph nodes looks irregular underneath,” she said, replying in the negative to both inquiries. “Then they asked if I had a family history of breast cancer, and I said no.”
That Saturday, Addison had a biopsy, and “that Monday I went into the hospital to have my son, and then on that Tuesday, the radiologist called and said, ‘We have your results back.’ I said OK, what’s going on?
“‘Your doctor wants to talk to you.’”
Her doctor wanted to wait until Addison’s husband, Leo, was with her. He’d left the house just 10 minutes earlier to get them food. But Addison couldn’t wait.
“‘Well, how long do I have left to live?’ And she didn’t answer. And I said, ‘Please tell me something before he walks in.’ I was like, is it cancer? And she said yes. And I said is it breast cancer? And she said yes.”
The next day, Addison had a PET (positron emission tomography) scan, a bone scan and a CT scan. “Every scan you could think of, I had done.”
And then she had a port surgically placed for chemotherapy treatments. Addison’s doctor gave her two weeks to recover from childbirth before starting chemo. She bargained for three, but because they weren’t sure how long the lump had been there, settled on two.
Her first treatment was July 14, and her last was about a week ago. Surgery has been scheduled.
Credit: Photo courtesy of April Addison
Credit: Photo courtesy of April Addison
Self-care
Addison said she believes being a nurse helped her to realize something wasn’t right with her body.
“I think that pain that I had that day was my signal.,” she said. “So I’m thankful that I got that pain, because I think without it, I don’t think I would have said anything.
“But you know, this whole thing has taught my family and friends and co-workers to just be very much more aware, because a lot of my friends that are nurses, they don’t check their breasts. Being a nurse, I think sometimes we put our own health to the side because we’re so busy caring for everybody else.”
But now Addison is caring for herself.
“I do meditation, just quiet time,” she said. “But I do a lot of walking, as well, outside. Fresh air helps. And then I also rest, though, because that’s very important to me. And once a month we’ll try to get outside and actually do something.”
Because she was on maternity leave when she was diagnosed, Addison didn’t have to worry about working for a few weeks. Although that’s expired, her doctors want her to stay home longer.
So now she and her husband, with help from their parents, are caring for her and her two boys, 2-year-old Aiden and 2-month-old Ashton, as Addison continues her journey to recovery.
Addison’s advice
“I would just like to encourage people that if you feel something, or you see something, say something. It doesn’t matter. You know? I think sometimes we get in our head that we don’t want to say something.
“Just make sure you’re looking at your body and, you know, noticing those changes. Just pay attention to what’s going on with your body. So I’m glad that I was able to actually pay attention to what was going on.”
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