SAINS & TEKNOLOGI
THINK PINK:
THE VAGUE KILLER OF BREAST CANCER
Inspired by a dauntless woman she recently visited this year, Nasyara Deana writes about a cancer survivor who at first could not accept the fact that she has catastrophic life ' s turning point.
In life you may come across a strong, bold, beautiful and courageous woman. One who inspires, motivates and has an eagerness for life. We interviewed Julainatul Shita, 48, an Admin of Prince Court Medical Center( PCMC) who had no inheritance of cancer from her family members and nobody in her family had ever gotten cancer before; was a stage 3 breast cancer patient when first diagnosed.
She first noticed that she had breast cancer back in the mid of March 2017, where she felt no pain, and experienced no fever at all. Julainatul told us that,“ I feel physically okay. But sometimes, about a year ago, I feel throbbing at my chest for a while and it will eventually disappear”.
At the age of 48 years old, she had never done any Mammo-
gram or even Ultrasound check with an oncologist.“ My Breast Self-Examination( BSE) can be counted by finger,” Julainatul felt regretful of her ignorance. She also mentioned that she knew it is advisable to go through the procedure after having her menstrual cycle.
One night, the time Julainatul was lying on her bed. She realized her left breast was slightly higher than the right breast. " My left breast was faintly bigger than the other. It looked as if I have planted a silicone in it ", she explained. Back then, she hadn ' t realized yet that her breast was already swollen. At only 48 years old, Julainatul’ s dreams were abruptly obscured by the cold, hard reality of 3 inches index finger of a lump at her upper nipple after doing BSE at her left breast.
“ I have no family history of any cancer and I thought during that time the lump I’ ve discovered was nothing at first. Because I had only just gotten my period”, she told us. She kept her lump discovery a secret about a month until she decided to see a surgeon at Rawang Specialist Hospital for examination.
During that one month she kept hidden, much to Julainatul’ s dismay, her skin texture had changed to orange colour and apparent inverted nipple, also a slight hint of discharge( signs of breast cancer).“ My breast had also started to become swollen( metastasis)”, she said. That was then she thought to herself,“ It’ s time to see a doctor”. After going through a series of examinations and biopsy, Julainatul was diagnosed with a malignant tumour, Left Breast Carcinoma Stage 3 – Fish HER2 test done with posi-
64. SASARAN JURNAL KRITIKAN MEDIA