For African American Women, like me... who are 45 years or younger, breast cancer diagnosis after childbirth increases the risk for metastasis and death, yet limited data exist to define this window of risk and associated prognostic factors. Postpartum breast cancer (PPBC), is defined as a breast cancer diagnosis within 5 years of last childbirth. Yet, PPBC is an under-recognized subset of breast cancer, and few studies address the associated high risk for metastasis.
And this is a direct reflection of my own personal story relating to breast cancer.
Not only was I pregnant during the pandemic, struggling severely with postpartum, and to add surviving COVID-19 too after having my son... Here I am 38yrs Old, battling Stage 3 Inflammatory Breast Cancer, a known rare aggressive one... My postpartum diagnosis was in April 2021 after having my son on 7/27/20 who came early due to pre-eclampsia. My son was placed in NICU after facing some health challenges, and due to him having a milk protein allergy I was unable to breastfeed him. From there, I knew because of my first son, my breast would then just engorge and drain out...However; my left breast had other plans and what we thought may have been just mastitis (infection) turned out to be way more than that... and we knew not from a lump first but from an aggressive expression... my left breast was huge, swollen, heavy, edema, warm to touch, red, orange peeled look…the masses weren’t found until after the mammogram was performed due to the density of my breast it was hard to find... and after having pet scan cancer had already spread to my skin and Lymph-nodes…
I wish it isn't suggested or recommended to wait until age 40yr to have your first Mammogram; and knowing what I know Now... We Young African American Women Don't Have To...We Can Advocate for ourselves to CHOOSE to Do It Not Only Early but as Many Times as We Feel We May Absolutely Need To...
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