I can’t stress the importance of early detection enough. I have a history of fibrocystic breast tumors, so I was used to having lumps in my breasts. But when I felt a lump last spring, it didn’t feel like they usually do – I thought, this just isn’t normal. So I went to the doctor, and it turned out to be cancer – a 2 cm tumor. In June, I had surgery, including 4 lymph nodes taken out (fortunately everything was clear there).
I didn’t really look into any other options besides SAVI for my radiation treatment. My doctor said it was the best treatment out there, so that’s what I should have. It was really important to me that SAVI only radiates the area where lump was. If you can avoid it, why would you radiate areas of the body that don’t need it? The timing was important, too. I like to play darts and I walk my dog every day, and six weeks of treatment would have kept me from doing both of those things. I’d give up one week instead of six weeks any day.
I was very nervous before they put the SAVI device in – I was afraid it was going to hurt. But they numbed me up so all I felt was the pressure of it going in, and I felt absolutely nothing when they took it out at the end of my treatment. I did get fatigued after the third day and there were times during the week that it was uncomfortable, but for the most part it was pretty painless. All in all, for what it did, SAVI was worth every minute of discomfort. It’s amazing to me how far we’ve come in treating breast cancer.