{"id":27192,"date":"2021-06-24T18:04:34","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T18:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cmshub.wpengine.com\/?p=347801"},"modified":"2024-11-03T15:14:52","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T15:14:52","slug":"covid-19-may-have-saved-a-womans-life-by-helping-her-discover-her-breast-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/covid-19-may-have-saved-a-womans-life-by-helping-her-discover-her-breast-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 May Have Saved a Woman\u2019s Life by Helping Her Discover Her Breast Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

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COVID-19 has plagued the entire world over the last year or so, wreaking havoc everywhere it can. Many have died, and even more have fallen gravely ill, some suffering lasting health effects. However, as they say, there\u2019s a silver lining to every cloud.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of those silver linings happened to Jacqui Matthew<\/a>, a woman who contracted the virus from her son, who got it from a classmate, who attended a well-known \u201csuper-spreading\u201d wedding event in Stanwell Tops in Australia toward the beginning of the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Things didn\u2019t start out so \u201csilver\u201d for the 48-year-old teacher. While her son and daughter only got a sore throat from the virus, Jacqui suffered from symptoms similar to a \u201creally heavy cold,\u201d including trouble breathing.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: Adobe Stock\/PheelingsMedia<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\u201cAll my bones were really heavy, like I just felt really, really off,\u201d she recalls. \u201cThere were days [my husband] had to feed me and wash me. I was just so sick.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jacqui and her family spent 29 days in lockdown<\/a> waiting for her symptoms to subside and her test results to come back negative. But her symptoms didn\u2019t completely subside after she was done with COVID.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe worst was the breathing \u2014 even after I\u2019d recovered from everything, I couldn\u2019t catch my breath,\u201d she says. \u201cI kept having COVID tests, and I definitely didn\u2019t have it anymore, but I hadn\u2019t quite recovered. I just couldn\u2019t get my lungs working properly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: Adobe Stock\/Maridav<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jacqui\u2019s doctor decided to order an MRI to check for damage in her lungs. Her local radiology center wouldn\u2019t accept her because she\u2019d recently had COVID, but she eventually managed to get in at Gosford Hospital<\/a> on New South Wales\u2019s Central Coast.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThank goodness they did,\u201d says Jacqui, \u201cbecause their technician said, \u2018There\u2019s nothing wrong with the lungs COVID-wise, but there\u2019s something here that needs investigating.’\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The scan had revealed a tumor, which turned out to be an aggressive form of breast cancer<\/a>. Because Jacqui was a little younger than the standard age of 50 at which many women begin getting regular mammograms, her cancer would likely have continued undetected for a while if it hadn\u2019t shown up on the MRI scan.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: Adobe Stock\/Nattakorn<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy doctor said if we had left it another couple of years, it would have been a very different story,\u201d she says. \u201cCOVID almost literally saved my life. I\u2019ve no doubt in my mind at all. There\u2019s no way I would have had a mammogram. I wouldn\u2019t have picked it up. It would have been another couple of years before I would have even thought about it \u2014 if I thought about it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Two days after her diagnosis, Jacqui spent her 49th birthday in surgery, followed by another surgery to remove more cancer. Then she underwent four rounds of chemotherapy, followed by radiation treatment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jacqui is now considered to be in remission<\/a>. It\u2019s been a rough year, but she considers herself lucky that she caught it when she did, while it was still in stage I, and made it to the other side of treatment.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: Adobe Stock\/motortion<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And, in a strangely symmetrical turn of events, being treated for cancer had a COVID-related silver lining, just as getting COVID had had a cancer-related silver lining. Jacqui says the breathing exercises she was taught to do for her radiation treatment helped get her COVID-related breathing difficulties under control.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSort of like COVID detected cancer, but then the cancer treatment helped COVID,\u201d Jacqui says. \u201cThey sort of went hand in hand.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the Department of Health, more than 75 percent of breast cancers occur between the ages of 50 and 74, which is why mammograms before the age of 50 are not standard in many parts of the world. Many women between the ages of 40 and 49 do not benefit from regular mammograms.<\/span><\/p>\n

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However, there\u2019s always that small percentage that will get cancer during those years or even younger. This is why it\u2019s important to do regular self-exams at home and to talk to your doctor if anything seems different or \u201coff\u201d about either of your breasts.<\/span><\/p>\n

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