MY LIFE Matters - Health Literacy - 4

Powerful Patient Stories SHARING MY STORY
Cancer Does Not Have Me
M
MY LIFE, MY JOURNEY " I HAVE CANCER, BUT IT DOES NOT HAVE ME "
BY KATHRYN JACKSON, TIGERLILY ANGEL ADVOCATE AND MBC THRIVER
y name is Kathryn, also
known as " iammskathryn, "
and I am currently a
stage IV metastatic breast
cancer Thriver! Before I
became metastatic, let me tell you a little
about my journey of self-discovery, learning,
and living my empowered best life.
My journey started March 2018, at
the age of 32 (my birthday is in July, so
I turned 33 that same year), I was in the
bathroom getting dressed when I noticed
a lump on my right breast, kind of like a
hard mosquito bite. I didn't know what to
do, so I called my OB-GYN at Northwestern,
Dr. Cavens, and told her about this
strange hard lump I found. She asked if
I could come down to Northwestern the
same day since someone canceled. I said
" yes, I can be on my way, " at this time a
lot was going through my head because
I had just started a new job with a new
company. As soon as I got down to my
doctor's office, the assistant told me to
change from the top up. My doctor came
in and she told me to lay down on the
table and began doing the breast exam;
she said " yes, that is a strange lump. " She
left the room to make some calls to see if
I could get a mammogram and a breast
ultrasound that day. I am thankful that
at this moment my doctor took these
extra steps to get me that first available
appointment. You hear far too often of
patients who are delayed and denied
testing that could have detected cancer
much sooner.
My doctor came back in to say " you're
in luck, someone canceled their appointment
and if you get to the other
building within 15 minutes, you can get
both exams done. I ran out of there to
another building to get undressed again
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MY LIFE MATTERS
HEALTH LITERACY ISSUE | SUMMER 2023
MY LIFE Matters - Health Literacy

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