Delphine started by feeling this symptom.
In France, more than 61,000 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year. It is the most common and deadliest cancer in women. Delphine, 45 -year -old administrative manager, received her diagnosis in January 2024. Faced with this test, she was able to count on her relatives, her resilience and remarkable courage. She shares her story in the Journal des Femmes.
It all started with a common medical examination. “It was a gynecological meeting that I do every year. I just told the midwife that I felt a tiny tingling in the breast that I would like to have it checked with a mammography.” At palpation, the practitioner actually feels something minimal, but sufficient to deepen the exams. A few days later, a mammography, followed by a biopsy, reveal a malignant tumor of 2.3 cm: a non-specific carcinoma of grade 2. “The sky falls on your head. I really did not expect it to be told that it was clever. I am sporty and I am not at all overweight. I am 45 years old, three children, a relatively healthy life and no history in my family. If I had waited, if I had not consulted and that I had not asked this question, we may have missed it”. Delphine must have surgery. “Before planning the operation, the surgeon took my shots and said:” Well then, for your cancer … “, while in the radiology cabinet, I was talked about as a malignant tumor. When she said this word, I took a second blow on the head, I had not really struck so far.”
Then comes the time to talk to his loved ones. “It was extremely difficult. I tried not to collapse, not to cry. I wanted to tell them right away that it was going to go, that I was going to fight.” The announcement to his parents, to her sons by phone, then to her 15 -year -old daughter, remains a very trying moment. “I had to be strong.” But Delphine chooses to talk about her illness, without taboo. “”I have a very large family, they are the ones who boosted me, who supported me and who brought me during this year. ” It undergoes a total mastectomy of the left breast (immediate removal and reconstruction by prosthesis), followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. “During the operation, we took the sentinel node that we had to analyze to see if it was reached, which allows to know if the cancer has spread. It was reached, so we set up a prevention protocol, but it is very heavy. Morally, it was very difficult.”
“I see life differently, the little trucks of everyday life no longer reach me”
Chemotherapy made him lose his hair and a lot of weight. “It was very complicated to eat, I no longer had a taste for food and I had nausea. Then, I was very weakened. I who am very sporty and who likes to walk, I couldn’t even go around my house. It was very frustrating, but I was holding good. I was counting: I had put small crosses on my calendar, every time I was a little cross. Time, by visits, messages … It helped me to hold. “
Delphine is good. Today, she is in hormone therapy, with a treatment planned for 7 to 8 years. “Even if we say that everything is gone, there is always a little doubt in the corner of the head. During my chemo and radiotherapy sessions, I met a lot of patients in recurrence. But I don’t want to think about it, I want to live normally. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, and I feel stronger today. I see life differently, the little trials of everyday life no longer reach me. I take advantage of simple happiness, for me it’s enough. “
Delphine recounts her experience in a book entitled “The taste of life, quite simply “. “While I was on stop, I read the book of Anaïs Quemener, a running champion who had very young breast cancer. It pulled me. From that moment, I started writing every day what I felt, like a diary, and it did me a lot of good. When I was finished, I said to myself” why not share it? “
Thanks to Delphine Delebarre, author of “The taste of life, quite simply” (ed. Of the Pantheon).
