Life: Stories by Isha

  1. Every time 'Breast this, breast that'; are you the first person to have breast cancer in Nigeria? You are right, I am not and I won't be the last to have breast cancer. This is why I have chosen to be vocal about my experience, as the information I provide may be helpful to someone down the line. So abeg bear with me because I plan to keep disturbing you about this issue, God willing 🙏🏿😋. Before this ordeal, I was one of those who thought that people younger than 40 couldn't get breast cancer. I was diagnosed at 32. Scientifically speaking, my treatment was successful because the cancer was detected early, and it was detected early because I performed my breast exams regularly. This is why I keep making noise - the experts recommend monthly self exams.  Here are some guides to help you perform your own breast exam: Source: Google Say these lemons were breasts, these are some abnormalities to look out for during a breast self exam. Source: Google 2. This level of...

Sorry people, I'm bad at this.  I will get better at this. I will set posting reminders going forward. Today, I am sharing what I know about breast screening. Who : I think this is the most difficult question to answer because even the medical experts have differing opinions. What we knew before was that, generally, people younger than 40 didn't need to get screened. Now, we have 20 and 30 yr olds being diagnosed and treated for breast cancer - I'm only  33. I think the safest thing for people to do is start checking their breasts now, no matter the age. We never pray for breast cancer but not knowing is way more dangerous. Why : I've heard people say of breast cancer screening - " you will find what you're looking for ". I think that's a very simple mindset. Not all boobs are alike; some people have lumpy breasts on a good day. Some breasts get lumpy around periods. Some nipples are normally inverted; some are always hard... I always tell peopl...

Breast Cancer is a cancer of the breast. That's it. I guess the real question is - what is cancer? In lay terms, cancer is something that is growing where it doesn't belong. More accurately, cancer is a disease that causes 'bad' cells to multiply rapidly, invading the space of the good cells, and overpowering the 'soldiers' that our bodies are normally equipped to fight disease with. Image source: Google One may say breast cancer is one of the better kinds of cancer because detection is more straightforward than with leukemia, for example, as in most cases, changes in breast tissue can be noticed. As with most cancers, breast cancer is diagnosed based on how much the disease has grown/spread, from Stages 0 to 4(IV). Stage 0 is also known as DCIS ( ductal carcinoma in situ - which loosely means that the cancer is small, still in the original place where it occurred and hasn't spread); Stage IV refers to cancers that are large and have metas...