Meet Samantha! Stage 3 Inflammatory Mammary Carcinoma
My name is Samantha McDevitt, I am 32 old and a native resident of Winchester, Virginia. On May 20, 2021 I was diagnosed with stage 3 inflammatory mammary carcinoma (breast cancer in short). This situation completely blindsided me, as I have 0 family history.
Having been a former egg donor, I’ve had extensive genetic testing with no hiccups in my DNA, including but not limited to, no genetic trackers for any cancer. I came about my diagnosis by putting on deodorant and noticing my armpit was a bit tender, it was at this point I noticed my right breast was a bit larger than usual. Over the next 3 days it continued to swell, by the 4th day I got an appointment with my gynecologist who took one look at me and said she’d never seen anything like it, the words that stuck with me- “if this is cancer, you’re in a world of trouble.”
Well it was in fact cancer. This statement came especially difficult because I’d mentioned to other gynecologist’s in the same practice on 3 separate occasions that my breast felt “hard”, and they would continuously feel it and say it was “just dense tissue”. At the time when those comments were made, maybe it was- or maybe it wasn’t. No physician ever made a point to guide me to get it checked out, therefor I’ll never know if I could have caught it earlier; before it spread to my auxiliary nodes.
I encourage you to know your body and if something doesn’t seem right, push for answers. Again, breast cancer doesn’t just show up in the form of a lump- mine sure didnt!
Samantha McDevitt