Giovanna's Story: Breast Cancer (English Translation of Spanish Language recording)

Recorded March 12, 2002

Listen With 15 minutes, 28 seconds. (Audio is in Spanish)

Long Wait for a Diagnosis

My name is Giovanna. I am from San Juan, Puerto Rico. I never thought that cancer would show up in my breast. If for any reason I would have thought that I would get some kind of cancer, I would have said that it would be related to my habit of smoking that I had for many years. Now, thank God, I freed myself from that habit a little before they diagnosed me with this disease.

In June of the year 2000, I began to experience a type of vaginal bleeding. I was a little worried after several weeks went by with an increase of blood loss. I was already premenopausal. My period would leave for a few months, then it would come back. When all this blood started, I got scared and I went to the gynecologist.

It had been five years since I had visited the gynecologist and because of that the gynecologist, responsibly as part of the exam--which I think is something all gynecologists should do--he responsibly sent me to get a mammogram and a [breast sonogram]. I did it immediately.

In reality, I had no idea that there was a lump, but God knows what he is doing because I would have worried too much. I took the results to the gynecologist. When he read them he referred me to an oncologist surgeon for a possible biopsy. I understood that by saying a possible biopsy, I didn't get scared at that stage. I didn't get scared, and this was in my favor because if I would have gotten scared I probably would have stopped in one of the steps. Perhaps I would have not gone to the surgeon [or] to the gynecologist to take the results, or I would not have gone to the surgeon to take him the referral from the gynecologist.

I truly did not get scared. I made the appointment with the surgeon oncologist, a prestigious surgeon oncologist here in Puerto Rico. The appointments were full, they gave me an appointment for--I made my appointment in July of 2000. They gave me an appointment on the 21st of August, in other words, almost two months afterwards. I made a comment about this to my gynecologist. My gynecologist told me that in some occasions, when he sees that the case is grave, he himself calls the surgeon's office to change the appointment for an earlier date. He didn't do this; he stayed calm. I had no reason to think it could be a malignant tumor.

When I went to the surgeon, that was the only time that I could touch the tumor because the tumor was very deep. It was in the right breast very deep. He made an appointment for September 25, 2000, a little over a month afterwards. I didn't think that it could be anything bad because if it would have been something grave, perhaps they would have scheduled the biopsy earlier, faster.

I went to do the biopsy, it is a walk-in biopsy. That same day the doctor must have realized--obviously because of his experience--that the tumor was a malignant tumor, but he didn't say anything. Although one signal that I was given after everything had passed--looking back, I realized that I was the only one who came out positive in the group that the doctor operated on that day. For example, all of the rest of the people who were with me were given an appointment for the next week. They gave me an appointment for that same week. Someone asked one of the young people who was there for their medical certificate. I asked why they hadn't given me mine also. She told me that they would give it to me when I went there that week. Other people passed by, for example technicians and nurses who were in the operation, asking which one were I. They showed many signals that I was the person who had come out positive and the others around me had not. Thank God I didn't realize that. I was still half-anesthetized.

I went home. That was Monday the 25th of September 2000. I went home peacefully with the natural irritation after the operation, but nothing out of the norm. Thursday of that week, Thursday the 28th, I returned to the doctor to get the results back and there he told me the key words, the most frightening words someone can hear. He told me that the tumor was malignant.

Treatment: Quadrectomy or Mastectomy?

Naturally, my world felt like it was falling apart. It was a very hard experience for me and for my husband who was with me. It wasn't expected. I felt in one way that I was a healthy person--I was overweight [but] I didn't have any other symptom[s]. No one would have thought that I had cancer in my body. The doctor then explained to me that I had two options. I could do a quadrectomy, which is a little more than a lumpectomy, or a mastectomy, and he explained the advantages and disadvantages of both operations.

After that he gave me--that was Thursday the 25th--he gave me until the following Tuesday to make a decision about which operation I would do. In reality, I entered a very confusing stage because he had given me five days to make a decision that would change my life for always.

That night I arrived home in a state of shock, in other words, I couldn't make a single decision, I couldn't think about anything, but the next day I began to investigate. The first thing I did was I went to see my gynecologist to take him the results and to ask for his opinion. He told me that I should opt for the mastectomy.

That Friday night, I called my brother and I explained what was happening. My family, I have cousins and uncles who are doctors, they also intervened. Everyone gave their opinion. Everyone told me, "We are going to respect your opinion because it is your body." That was a very difficult phase.

The following Monday I went to work because I had told the doctor that I wanted to keep working. He told me that yes it would be better, staying at home would be worse. That Monday I remember that I went from work to the American Cancer Society to look for information about the different types of breast cancer to see what decision I would make: the mastectomy or to opt for a quadrectomy.

The day came that I had to make--I went to talk to the doctor and I still hadn't made a decision. I was very indecisive. The doctor's secretary told me that the doctor had never made a mistake when he lets the patients choose, but he lets the patients choose, even though I saw that he leaned towards me not doing the mastectomy.

The operation was scheduled for the 9th of October. I had the operation. I spent three days in the hospital. They did the operation on my lymph nodes, and he gave me the bad news that of the eleven lymph nodes that the doctor took out, four of them were positive. Therefore, I had to receive chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

They recommended me a very good hematologist oncologist who I am also very grateful to. He immediately scheduled the chemotherapy. After, the doctors understood that the best would be to start with chemotherapy and later radiation and then chemotherapy again. I received the treatment that they call "block sandwich," which is the radiation in the middle and chemotherapy [before and after]. The doctor gave me four chemotherapies, four treatments.

Radiation and Chemotherapy

Immediately came the worst for me, the worst part of the whole sickness, which was losing my hair. And it fell out just as the doctor had said--the three weeks of the first chemotherapy--the same day that I started the second week, my hair fell out. Afterwards I did the 36 radiations. Originally it was going to be 33, but when I was on my tenth radiation, apparently my immune system had lowered and I caught a cold. I didn't take care of it and it turned into pneumonia and I was hospitalized for nine days.

Those days were horrible also because there was the possibility that instead of being pneumonia the tumor could have moved to my lung. Thank God it wasn't like that, instead it was pneumonia. I continued with my radiations and my four chemotherapies. I received the last chemotherapy on July 11, 2001.

Those are the facts. In regards to the spiritual part for me--one thinks he/she is immortal, that they will never get sick. I have always been a healthy person. I had never spent the night in the hospital.

The first time I stayed overnight in a hospital had been two months before because they had done a biopsy on my cervix because a Pap smear had resulted class two. Twice it came out class two. The doctor decided to do a biopsy, and because my husband was out of town--I was alone at home, so the doctor decided that I should spend the night in the hospital. That was the first time that I had spent the night in a hospital. In other words, I was a healthy person.

Finding Support

I never thought that it would be this disease, it was a horrible thing. At first I cried a great deal. I spent some days crying, but I composed myself quickly. In fact, I found out about the disease on Thursday. On Sunday when I went to church--to the Catholic church that I attend--I cried throughout the entire mass because it was such a--I felt disgraced.

I never thought that I would die, I never thought that. But what would happen to me? The following Wednesday, or three or four days afterwards, I called the priest of my church to invite him to come eat at my house. When he listened to me he told me that he considered me cured because he had noticed a change in my attitude in three or four days. I also went to healing mass.

I became very close to God. I have always been close to God, but I realized that I still needed to get closer to God, much, much closer. So I saw that God had a reason for sending me this disease. It was so that I would try to be a better person, to change many attitudes.

It [the disease] also served to make me realize the amount of people who really care for me, who pray for me, who attended to me all of the time. I also had luck about something that I recommend to all of the people who go through something like this. I met a woman who was operated on the same day that I met her, the day I went to the doctor, who was going through the same thing. Her tumor was really similar to mine. Although later she had less lymph nodes that came out positive--her lymph nodes came out negative. She didn't have to take the last chemotherapies that I had to take.

I wanted to meet someone who was going through the same thing that I was and God sent me that person. Today, we are still friends, we talk. Another thing that helped me a great deal, and I recommend it to everyone, is to read about the disease. My brother gave me some advice. My brother is a professor at the University of Wisconsin. He recommended that I read because the more I read, the more power I had over my disease. In fact he sent me some books. One of them is called "Not Just One in Eight" by Barbara Stevens, which are interesting stories about cancer survivors.

Helping Others

I believe that I have become an expert in breast cancer. I still today do research on the computer, I keep reading, I have plans to write a book about my experience when I retire. It is not the end of the world. I thought that the world was going to end. It is not like that.

I already passed through the worst. I have helped other people. For that reason precisely, I offered to give this testimony and I have also offered to help in whatever way that I can. I can translate articles from English to Spanish. But right now I don't because I don't have time because I am still working. I can't retire for two more years. I want to dedicate myself to help other people who are passing--who have passed through this--the people who have just been diagnosed with this disease, and they don't know what to do, and they are in the stage of confusion that I was in.

I believe that it is really important, that I looked for a reason for my disease because everything has a reason. If God wanted to send me this disease, or he permitted the disease, then it is because I am one of the chosen ones, and he wanted me to go through this for a certain reason. It was probably because I had never had anything—well, I lost my mom and dad, but I had never been really sick. I never, I repeat, I had never been in a hospital overnight. It wasn't like--I have a sister for example who has had various operations and has passed. I never had that happen to me in all of my life. Everyone has to deal with some kind of suffering. Life is not a bed of roses. I have had many blessings because I have a husband, for example, who adores me, that is with me all of the time.

I believe that is basically all that I have lived through. Right now I am in recuperation. Like I said, I received my last chemotherapy the 11th of July 2001. My hair is already starting to grow really slowly, but it is growing, it is growing curly. I had straight hair, now it is growing curly. I feel good physically. Although not long ago I had a tiny scare because I did a routine mammogram, every six months they were doing a routine mammogram. It came out that there was something in my left breast. Remember that my cancer was in the right, but thank God it was nothing, it was nothing to worry about, a benign lump. The doctor decided that he wouldn't do anything for now.

I am still in treatment, my doctor--this week I have an appointment with my surgeon oncologist. I want him to check, to look at the wound, the wound is already healing. There was a stage that my friend went through also, the one who was operated on the same day as me. After the operation, about six or seven months afterward, my arm started to hurt me more than as if it had been recently operated on during that stage. Thank God I feel okay. That is all I have to say now. I believe that after all of this, I give thanks for giving me the opportunity to express what I feel.

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