Embarrassed?! So was I, at first… I thought, “I’m a smart guy with a Master’s degree from Yale. I can’t get breast cancer — I’m a guy! It’s a woman’s disease!” How smart I wasn’t! I detected a lump on the left side of my chest in early 2012 and did nothing for over 10 months. My doctor then told me that males and females, both, can get breast cancer.
The only thing that would have been really embarrassing, is if I had let it go longer…
I didn’t choose to have cancer, so the only embarrassing part of this entire process is that I chose to ignore the symptom for too long. The result was that the cancer migrated slightly to one of my lymph nodes, requiring me to receive Chemotherapy in addition to surgery. Not fun…
The only thing that would have been really embarrassing, is if I had let it go longer and ended up dying from what was very curable. So, if you detect a lump in your chest area and you’re feeling embarrassed about it, contact me and I’ll talk you through it — after all, I’ve been there!
Eric van Gestel
August 2016
