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Dr. Kim Allison’s Story

Program: My Journey from Pathologist to Breast Cancer Survivor
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Dr. Allison:

Correct.  Thanks, Andrew.  Yes, it was quite a shock, and I had just had my second child, so I was a young mother and working full-time, and there’s never a good time to be diagnosed with cancer, but it was quite a shock.  I had no family history or other reason to suspect.

Andrew Schorr:

Now, women would not normally be having mammograms at age 33 unless their mother was diagnosed at a younger age, some reason for them to be at higher risk and closer surveillance.  So what had you go to the doctor in the first place? 

Dr. Allison:

So I was breastfeeding at the time.  My second child was about seven months old, so I had just started slowing down breastfeeding, and I’d noticed by self exam that there was an area in my left breast that was firmer than the rest, but, you know, during breastfeeding everything is a little bit firmer than usual, and it’s a little bit more difficult to pick up subtle changes.  But I did notice there was a firmer area that went really across the upper and outer aspects of that breast, and it seemed more fixed than the rest. 

And so I kept monitoring that for a few weeks to see if it changed at all, and then it was really at the urging of my husband who, you know, said, you really should go get that checked out, you know, and I was thinking most — most breastfeeding changes are nothing other than plugged ducts or maybe some mastitis.

Andrew Schorr:

Right.  And year a busy doctor -

Dr. Allison:

Yes.

Andrew Schorr:

--and a busy mom with little children.  You didn’t have a lot of time to just go through a fire drill when it was going to be nothing. 

Dr. Allison:

Exactly.

Andrew Schorr:

But it wasn’t nothing, and I understand it turned out to be an 8 centimeter mass, so not small. 

Dr. Allison:

No, it was one of the biggest ones.  And I knew when it came back malignant that, oh, boy, this is bad.  This is a big cancer.  You know, most of the ones that I see are around a centimeter or two.

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