“Your breast is not
important to me.
What’s more important
is that I want you to be
healthy.”
tive 3. In simple terms, an advanced
grade cancer.
After hearing those three
words from her doctor, “You have
cancer,” initially Julainatul was
emotionally composed. She felt as
if she was dreaming and the reality
hasn’t sunken in. At first, she can-
not accept the truth because had no
family history of cancer. Ever.
The next day when her son
told her, “Mama, I can, of course,
look for you in the current life (this
present). But I don’t know where to
find you in life after death. So, you
fight for it mama”. At that moment,
Julainatul broke down into tears
and still cannot accept the fact
that she has a stage 3 breast can-
cer. “Why me? Why me?” was the
question that had haunted her for
several days. When her oncologist
explained to her and why she got it,
little by little she finally tried to face
the reality and prepared herself for
the battle. An ultrasound, mam-
mogram and CT scan were done to
confirm the tumour with param-
eter of 8 inches by 12 inches. “The
oncologist told me that – advance
grade carcinoma always attacks
patients below the age of 50 due to
the active Estrogen (before meno-
pause)”, said Julainatul. The cell in
the lobules of her breast multiplies
uncontrollably in shape and divid-
ed into alienated forms whereas our
normal cell would multiply accord-
ingly.
Julainatul went through
series of chemotherapy as much as
8 cycles of chemo for every 21 days
with a combination of 3 types of
cytoxic drugs such as TAC, Pre-
jecta and Heceptin. During those
struggling weeks, she experienced
physical weakness, and the loss
of her hair, nails discolouration,
she realized her circumstance had
changed her perceptions on life in a
different outlook. She went to see a
PCMC Breast Surgeon and Oncol-
ogist in April 2017. She was curious
of her life span as she was having
Stage 3 Left Breast Carcinoma
(infected more than 4 limb nodes),
so she asked them, “How long can I
live?”.
The Breast Surgeon replied,
“You don’t be naughty, just follow
what we’ve planned for you and you
will be alright”. At the same time,
the oncologist answered, “I give you
the best medicines”. Encouraging
Julainatul to keep on fighting for
her life and made her feel confident
during the difficult times. “They
give me hope”, was the only thing
Julainatul felt sure of.
She began to experience
life through a different set of lens,
aligning her empathy and spiri-
tual-self in tune. “Accept what I
am, what I have. I am pleased with
Allah’s test and I will be fine”, she
explained. The support from her
family, husband and friends kept
her going during these darkest
hours. “Having endless support
from the husband is an important
key to fighting cancer.
He has to be emotionally
strong, knowing the fact that her
wife only has one breast to live
with”, grateful is Julainatul to be
having such a supportive husband
throughout the rough life journey
she has to go through. One of her
nuisance co-workers in PCMC did
asked her this when she showed up
for work one day, “Is it true? I heard
that your husband couldn’t take
it that you only have one breast?”
Julainatul only replied, “No, he is
okay with it and I still have anoth-
er breast”. Back in her retreat with
her family, she told her husband
what had happened earlier and her
husband responded, “Your breast
is not important to me. What’s
SASARAN JURNAL KRITIKAN MEDIA . 65