Lynette Bisconti - In November of 1997, my husband and I were trying to get pregnant. We had been happily married for two years and in November I found a lump in my breast and my internist said, “I think you have just injured yourself. Don’t worry about it”, and sent me home.
Four days later, I got pregnant and while my husband and I were thrilled to hear the news that I was pregnant there was this nagging voice in the back of my head that kept saying there is something wrong. Three weeks later, in January of 1998, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
This was a decision about my life and I was 32 years old. I was not equipped to make that decision and I was scared out of my mind. I thought naively going in that the doctors were actually going to care about me and see this as something tragic and pick up and help me through it and work with me as a partner, see me as an individual and see me as a human being.
When I got those doctors’ offices, that’s not the experience I had, and I sought eight total medical opinions. Well, after seeing my OB/GYN and pursuing the lump with him, he sent me to a surgeon. He came into the room after removing this, what was believed to be a benign cyst. He stood in the doorway and he said to me, “I don’t know how to tell you this”, and I finished his sentence.
I said I have cancer, and he said, “Yes”, and then he walked up to my bed and said, “And you have to abort immediately because the hormones will probably fuel the cancer so you have to abort you baby immediately”, to save my life - to save my life!