Woman Finds Out She Has Breast Cancer While Breastfeeding | She Discovered a Lump That Was a Rare Type of Cancer

Julie McAllister was just about done weaning her second baby off breastfeeding when she felt a lump in her breast. “I thought initially it was mastitis or something like that. I wasn’t too concerned,” she said, per TODAY. She also assumed it was a blocked milk duct, but she decided to get it checked with her doctor. 

The medical professional, however, told McAllister that the lump “felt a little suspicious” and recommended her to have a sonogram. The then 36-year-old McAllister had little experience with the breast cancer tests at her age and was a bit overwhelmed. “I’d never had a mammogram. I’d never had a breast sonogram,” she said. “They told me it looks suspicious and asked if I could stay to get a biopsy and a mammogram on the spot.”

After all these tests, the mom was worried, and it only got worse when the doctor called to confirm that her biopsy results came back positive for cancer. She was diagnosed with a rare type of triple-negative breast cancer called metaplastic carcinoma. “They asked me to get genetic testing because I was 36 years old and it’s not typical for a young, healthy woman to have breast cancer,” she said. “I was BRCA positive.”

Usually, people who are BRCA positive do risk developing ovarian cancer, which means they often undergo a prophylactic hysterectomy. However, this was a step McAllister and her husband weren't ready for, since this mean that she wouldn't be able to have more kids in the future. It also meant that her cancer did not respond to targeted treatment, because it was that rare. 

“My husband, Brendan, and I were not sure if we were done completing our family,” McAllister, now 41, of Westport, Connecticut, said. “(My oncologist) thought that it was imperative that if I wanted to have the option of having more kids trying to do a round of egg retrieval and embryo creation (before cancer treatment).”

“I had a baby. I had a 3-year-old,” she said. “I was debilitatingly depressed. I didn’t know how to process it.” Eventually, she underwent a mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation, and even had her ovaries removed but kept her uterus. But, through it all, her husband stood right by her, which helped her a great deal, during some of her darkest days. “He resigned from (his) job and he was there for me and my family the whole time,” she said.

Since then, she's been cancer-free, and McAllister is pregnant again! She's due February 2022!

Now, she wants to share her story with people, because she wants to let them know that a breast cancer diagnosis doesn't necessarily mean the end of the world. “You can be diagnosed at a young age and it doesn’t necessarily mean that your life is over or that you can’t have kids,” she said. “There’s a light at the end of the tunnel and I’m proof of that.”

References: 

https://www.today.com/health/mom-36-discovers-breast-cancer-while-breastfeeding-t234530 

Cover Image Source (Representative): Getty Images | kieferpix