Back in August 2022, I was lying in bed one night and felt an itchy sensation near my right nipple. As I scratched my chest, I felt a small rough lump approximately the size of a marble under the skin. My wife noticed me prodding and poking at the area and asked what was going on. I told her what I felt, but I dismissed it as nothing, as there was no pain or discomfort. She immediately insisted (a few times) that I needed to get in to see our doctor regarding this. Reluctantly, the next day I made an appointment. Three days later, I got in to see our family doctor, who jokingly walked into the examination room and said, “Hey Lumpy – What’s up? Let’s check this out, but it’s probably nothing to be concerned about”. He arranged an ultrasound and a mammogram for me.
One week later, I had a mammogram and ultrasound performed at the clinic, and on Sept 19, 2022, I had another mammogram and biopsy done at the Breast Screening Clinic here in Sudbury. During both of those appointments, the staff were great, but I felt completely out of place sitting in the pink waiting room watching the Oprah Winfrey network on TV while enduring the strange looks from the other patients, wondering why I was there. One elderly lady mentioned to me that she had initially gone to the wrong area of the hospital before getting here and was now a bit late. I believe this was supposed to prompt me to do a similar check to see if I had made the same mistake. Instead, I offered to exchange my number in the cue for hers so she could go ahead.
On Sept 28, 2022, I returned to the Breast Screening Clinic to meet with the doctor to discuss the test results. She informed me that at the age of 56, I had been diagnosed with breast cancer and that I would require a right-sided mastectomy within the next month. I was floored with this news. She informed me that they were still awaiting the HER2 test results from the biopsy to determine the likelihood of spread and post-surgery treatment options. Other than “Are you sure?”, I couldn’t even come up with any questions to ask. After I heard the word “cancer”, I tuned out most of the rest of the conversation and left there in a daze. I knew little about breast cancer and even less about male breast cancer.
In the subsequent weeks leading up to the operation, I learned that breast cancer was the cause of my paternal grandmother’s death in the 1950s.
One month later, on Oct 27, 2022, I went to Health Sciences North Hospital in Sudbury and had a right-sided mastectomy. During the follow-up visit with the surgeon, I was informed it was Invasive Ductal Carcinoma Stage 2A Grade 3 HER2+ Breast Cancer. The tumor had grown to 1.5 cm, and the cancer had spread to 2 of 11 lymph nodes that were also removed during the surgery.
From there, as I was recovering from surgery, the oncologists at the Northeast Cancer Centre met to determine my next step.
In December 2022, I began chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatments with Docetaxel, Carboplatin, and Herceptin. There were 6 sessions of this, and then the immunotherapy continued on for 11 more treatments, ending in January 2024. I am now on Tamoxifen for the next 5 years.
We are very fortunate to have the Northeast Cancer Centre here in Sudbury. All of the staff I encountered during these sessions were exceptional and really took the time to listen and care for the patients receiving treatment here.
During this time, I experienced the usual nausea and fatigue following the chemo treatments, which were cumulative and got a little worse as time progressed. I also had some swelling in the chest at the incision, where I had to get it drained on three separate occasions. I had numbness and pins and needles sensations in my toes and left hand fingers, which eventually disappeared. There is still swelling in my legs and ankles, and some joint pain. I also swear that there still is a lingering brain fog where I have some difficulty with mental tasks that were never a problem before, but this might just be old age, lol. It’s strange how self-conscious I am of the scar, as I have a lot of other imperfections, but that insecurity also seems to be fading as time passes.
I don’t know any other males affected by this disease. I was very disappointed with the Canadian Cancer Society ads during October that strictly focused on all of the women affected, with no mention of any male statistics whatsoever. I even went so far as to attempt to join another Facebook support group for breast cancer to discuss drug side effects, but I was denied access because I was male.
The good news is I’m still kicking and have a story to tell!