Ok so I’m gonna be super real for a bit in case it helps anyone else. My boob is killing me. I’d been having weird health issues for months and weird little stabby pains that I kinda wrote off as part of getting older.

And then one boob started getting bigger than the other and I wrote that off to gravity and weight gain. But then I got super sick with mastitis, a breast infection that usually only breastfeeding mothers get. I went to the doctor and they gave me antibiotics.

And I was soooo good about taking the whole course. The redness and infection seemed to go away but the pain persisted so I went back to my primary care doctor and he ordered a screening mammogram scheduled for a few months out. But, in the meantime, my boob kept hurting.

So I went to urgent care bc my primary doctor was out of the office and I was assigned to a female doctor. And the difference in the level of care I received was astounding. She really listened to me and said she understood how scary it could be to have breast issues.

- especially because my mother had breast cancer. She said it made no sense for me to wait months to get a mammogram and she switched my order to diagnostic imaging so I could be seen faster. Instead of waiting months, I had an appointment within a week.

The technician who did my mammogram was so friendly and told me exactly what she was doing every time she touched my body. It wasn’t nearly as scary as I thought it would be and it didn’t hurt at all. She said my breasts were very “busy”

And that there were some areas she could already see that would require additional imaging. We did a second round on my affected breast and then she led me to another room for an ultrasound with the doctor at the breast center.

He spent a long time looking at my breast and found some abnormalities in both but a larger mass in the breast that’s been giving me grief. A couple times, he hit spots that made me jump up and yelp with pain which was unexpected and a little embarrassing.

The rest of the procedure was relatively painless and everyone was very warm and caring. The doctor ordered a biopsy but, due to the location of the mass, they have to use do a mammogram during the extraction in order to guide them to it. They scheduled it before I left.

That was yesterday and today my breast feels so much worse. I keep getting sharp, localized pain. I went back to the female doctor at urgent care and she is flagging my biopsy as urgent so it can get bumped up to the next 48 hours. If pain worsens, I’m supposed to go to the ER.

This is all to say, if you suspect anything is wonky with your boobs, get them checked right away. In hindsight, one of my boobs had been getting larger for the past year. And my areola started subtly changing. (The lower half is much lighter and smoother.)

I’d been having intermittent pain for a while but wrote it off as normal because most women have some cyclical breast pain. The thing is though, it wasn’t normal for me.

As caretakers, I think women have a tendency to put off their health. But now I can’t stop thinking of the potential costs this may have caused me to incur. If something is really wrong, I’m going to really regret not taking it seriously and getting checked sooner.

So please, ladies, take care of yourself. Do self-exams, report any pain or changes to your doctor right away, keep up with your mammograms and trust your gut. If you don’t feel like your doctor is taking you seriously, see someone else. I love you and want you all to be healthy.