Image: iStock.
Most women are aware that regularly observing and feeling their breasts for changes can aid in the early detection of breast cancer.
Although lumps in the breast are a common sign of possible cancer growth, other indicators can be less obvious — and Melbourne woman Kylie Armstrong is using her own experience to spread that message.
As she explains in a public Facebook post, Armstrong noticed three shallow dimples were visible on the underside of her breast when she lifted her arm.
The indentations weren’t particularly obvious, but she mentioned to her doctor that her breasts looked different. While the GP couldn’t feel any lumps, she arranged a mammogram just to be certain — but it didn’t detect any clear signs, either.
It was only after undergoing an ultrasound that Armstrong was informed she had cancer growing deep in her breast, near her muscle.
“This is what my breast cancer looks like … These three dimples have turned my world and my family’s world upside down,” she writes.
“We are doing our best to cope. The messages and phone calls to me, my husband and my children sometimes help and sometimes make us all cry.”
Armstrong says at the moment she’s feeling shocked and numb, all while trying to deal her with tests and absorb relevant information. On Friday, she shared another post explaining she was about to go into surgery to “get this bloody cancer cut out.”
Ultimately, she wants others to learn from her experience.
Watch: The signs of ovarian cancer that every woman should know. (Post continues after video.)
