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For many people, breast cancer is associated with chemotherapy, several months of suffering, and finally death. The truth is quite different. Agnieszka Ford, who, at the age of 40, founded the “Kochasz Dopilnuj” foundation after winning the fight, talks about the treatment. Today, she successfully conducts workshops for young people and proves that cancer is not a death sentence.
How did you hear about your illness?
In my case, it wasn't like I came to the doctor for a routine checkup and suddenly my world turned upside down. I tried to have an ultrasound every year, and have a mammogram every two years. Around 2022, I had a slide. It seems to me that I underestimated the research, I wasn't on any research for 2-3 years. Before the holidays, when I took a shower, something stung in my right breast. When I touched, I felt a swelling. I touched my left breast right away, but the lumps were similar, so I chased away any bad thoughts in my head.
And what happened next?
In September I went for my first ultrasound. The doctor didn't notice anything on this ultrasound. It bothered me that he said everything was fine. Before leaving the office, I asked what the change I felt was. He asked me to undress again, examined me again and said he did not know what it was, but he would give me a referral for a mammogram. Then it all happened very quickly. I arranged for a mammography, I had a private appointment for another ultrasound. There the doctor saw something. She did not tell me then that it was cancer, but she advised me to contact the oncologist as soon as possible and said that she was giving indications for a biopsy. In the meantime, the results of mammography also came, where there was already contact with the oncologist at the cito. In fact, since then, it has been a month or so, where there were tests, a biopsy, a visit to the Oncology Center. After the biopsy, he was diagnosed with a malignant tumor of the right breast.
What did you feel when you heard the word "cancer"?
The first thought that comes to your mind - I think everyone - how much I have left. Thoughts like closing your affairs. For me it was so that I stayed in bed for 3 weeks andI was crying. It was an incredible fear combined with some irrationality. At one point, it felt like I was standing next to it and watching a movie or a person. I had this feeling and the feeling that it was not happening, that I would go to sleep, wake up and it would all be over.
What was your treatment like?
I "got" this least malignant tumor, which does not require strictly oncological treatment. Ie. it is an oncological treatment, but it is usually associated with chemotherapy - I did not have this chemotherapy, it was not needed. Also, if it were not for the size of the tumor, which in my case was 9 cm, I would not need radiotherapy, which I underwent more prophylactically. This cancer treatment of mine is minimally invasive compared to some of my friends that I have met in the meantime.
As of today, I know that a complete picture of the tumor would only be obtained from an MRI scan of the breast, which no one ordered me to do, and I did not know that 3 years ago that such an examination existed. Everywhere you really hear only about ultrasound and mammography tests. Magnetic resonance imaging of the breast is a more specialized examination.
You have had a mastectomy. Can you explain what it looks like exactly?
Nowadays, breast reconstruction is an integral part of the treatment, the part that completes the treatment of breast cancer. The aim is now to ensure that as many patients as possible undergo a so-called mastectomy at the moment. simultaneous reconstruction. For women after radiotherapy, any reconstructive procedures take place at least 6 months after the end of radiotherapy. This is the absolute minimum to undertake further stages of treatment. At the beginning of this year, I had a replacement of the implant expander, the so-called permanent denture. At the same time, I had a so-called breast reduction done. left breast symmetrization. My type of cancer in all kinds of studies that I have read and in various consultations is a cancer that likes to spread to the other breast, and at the same time is hard to detect, so I wanted to have this matter settled. In fact, one and a half years have passed since I started my reconstruction procedures.
How is your treatment now?
My treatment at this stage is taking anti-hormones. With the type of cancer that I had - and it was a hormone-dependent type - the patient for a period of at least For 5 years they take drugs which, if some cancer cells survive in the body, are supposed to suppress their multiplication.
Cancerous diseases are no longer diseases that once affected our grandmothers. These arediseases that affect an ever younger group. In our campaign, the youngest woman who fell ill was 23 years old at the time of diagnosis.
As of today, how are you feeling?
I feel very well at the moment. Above all, I am happy that I finally have a small and even breasts. Until the beginning of November this year, I had a huge disproportion. I remember that as a young girl I always dreamed of collecting money for an operation and making it smaller. It may sound ridiculous, but fate has found its way to make this dream come true.
Dominika StanisławskaShe graduated from Polish Studies and Philosophy at the University of Warsaw. She worked on film sets as a script and assistant director. Her interests focus primarily on new technologies used in medicine, which may revolutionize the treatment of many diseases. She is interested in film and learning foreign languages. He spends his free time by the water.