Son, I am not feeling well. ( Breast Carcinoma Stage III )

Imagine hearing that from your mother's mouth.. The same mother that gave you life is fighting for her own right now. I've never felt so helpless, but the least that I can do is work, be alongside her during this battle, and this..

My mom, Aurora B. Perado has recently been diagnosed with Stage 3 Invasive Breast Carcinoma. She first felt the lump on her right breast around late June of 2019. We immediately went to the hospital and got it checked up since my grandmother actually passed away this 2018 for having the same cancer, the only difference is that my grandma didn't wanted any of the chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. We want to go for the other direction this time, we want to fight.

First it was the ultrasound and mammography, after finding out that there's a suspicious lump on her right breast, we then moved on to the next step which is consultation. We were told by the doctor that we'll need a Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy to identify whether if the tumor is benign or malignant. The procedure was done in Batangas Medical Center, It's a Government/Public hospital where you'll have to get a number, fall in line and then wait for your turn to get treated. We went there at exactly 6am and my mom got treated 8pm.

7 working days later, we got the result. We were so happy when we saw this single piece of paper that said "Benign" and it was just a Fibrocystic breast tumor. We hugged, we kissed, and we celebrated after. The doctor just reminded us to get it checked up again after 6 months.

February morning, it's time to get checked up. We visited a nearby hospital this time since I thought it was only for consultation. The doctor frankly said that he thinks it's breast cancer and we need to get the surgery done as soon as possible. We were shocked to the core, we even thought he was insane for telling that without having any test done of some sort. I wanted to go to another hospital the same day but the doctor that I wanted was not available that day.

The next day, we went to Manila to get her thoroughly checked up, I was never convinced by the doctor that said she has breast cancer but it didn't left my mind so I had to be sure. The new doctor told us her right breast doesn't look good and before she says anything, we need to get a Core Needle Biopsy to be precise, so we did.