When Juliette O’Connell was diagnosed with stage three, grade three, HER2-positive breast cancer at age 41 in March 2012, she had no family history of the disease, felt completely well, and had found no initial lump.
The First Symptoms
O’Connell first noticed a rash around her collarbone and at the top of her left breast in June 2011. Initially thinking it was a heat rash after returning from a cycle, she treated it with Sudocrem. Because the rash was ruining her clothes, she asked at her local pharmacy for a different cream, and the pharmacist recommended she see a doctor about the growing rash.
She did not visit a doctor until a few weeks later while taking her youngest child in for a check-up. The doctor referred her to the breast care unit in the Limerick Regional Hospital, where a consultant recommended a mammogram. In the second week of January 2012, she noticed flaky skin close to the nipple on her left breast. The flaking worsened, the original rash merged with the dry skin area, and it became raw and quite sore, eventually looking like it was cut with a pus-type liquid appearing.
Diagnosis and Treatment
On March 9, 2012, O’Connell returned to the breast care unit for a mammogram, an ultrasound of both breasts, and a biopsy of her left breast. Afterward, her consultant informed her she had breast cancer. Tests showed she had a substantial tumour in her left armpit, a 5.6cm tumour on one side of her breast, and a 3.2cm tumour on the other side, confirming stage three, grade three, HER2-positive breast cancer.
Her treatment plan included the drug Herceptin, a clinical trial of a new drug called Lapatinib targeting advanced or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, and a chemotherapy programme aimed at reducing tumour size. She was hospitalised after every chemotherapy session due to illness. Following chemotherapy and a six-week recovery, she underwent surgery to remove her left breast and 17 lymph nodes. Tests of the removed tissue and nodes showed no cancer was found. After an eight-week recovery from surgery, she began a course of radiotherapy to remove any small stray cancer cells.
