A few years ago, I saw this question on Quora:

The question fit my experience like a glove, so I started writing an answer:

"While raising my arms to put up my hair, I noticed in the bathroom mirror that my armpits didn’t look the same as each other. One armpit was more indented than the other. It wasn’t an enormous difference between the two armpits, but it was undeniably there.

"It didn’t seem natural to me. I made a mental note to ask the doctor about it next time I saw her.

"A few months later, I visited the doctor for a follow-up on an unrelated health matter. I mentioned the armpit difference, expecting her to not even look. After she saw the armpits, she examined the puffier side. I had not realized that the puffy side was the problem side. I had only known that the two armpits looked different.

"She performed a manual breast exam on the puffier side, and found a lump in the breast. She said “It’s probably nothing” and ordered a mammogram.

"I was confident that it was just a couple of harmless cysts, and wanted that mammogram ASAP so I could be sure. I called around to find the mammogram facility with the soonest appointment (a hole-in-the-wall imaging mill that does CAT scans using real cats). After the mammogram, I waited to hear back from my doctor with the mammogram results. After waiting a few days with no word from my doctor, I picked up the radiologist report myself from the mammogram facility.

"When I started reading the report in the parking lot, it seemed like a mistake, because it didn’t say harmless cysts. The report said that the lump looked like cancer. That couldn’t be me, couldn’t be right. But it had my name on it.

"When I got home, I googled terms from my report, like 'spiculated' and 'BI-RADS 5'. The report seemed to say that my odds of having cancer were 19 to 1. My only hope was to tell myself that the radiologist could be wrong.

"Then I read that when a radiologist says 95% chance of cancer, he is almost always correct. I gave up. In my mind, I joined the ranks, the 1 in 8 women who get breast cancer. At first I pondered the inconvenience and disfigurement of treatment. Then I realized that I could really die from this, and I cried. Because of the armpit swelling, I guessed that the cancer had already reached my lymph nodes, making it more deadly. Most breast cancer patients don't know their lymph node status until after biopsy.

"My next step was researching how to pay for treatment. When the doctor finally called, I was put in the care of a first-rate oncology team, who confirmed the cancer diagnosis with a biopsy. A CAT scan showed that the cancer had traveled to six lymph nodes in my armpit, causing the swelling that I had been able to see with my naked eye in my mirror. My small armpit discrepancy had indeed turned out to be something very significant. I bitterly regretted having waited over 18 months since my last mammogram.

"The lymph nodes have since been surgically removed, along with the cancerous breast lump. After chemo and radiation, still alive five yrs later. :-) "

Whew! It felt good to deliver an answer that addressed the question. In the past, I had shoehorned my stories into formats that didn't fit. I felt lucky to find a "writing prompt" that I could respond to without a shoehorn.

Little by little, people saw my little story, and responded with cheers and good wishes for my future health. I answered every one. Their questions sent me back into edit mode, to elaborate on the details they questioned. With no social media presence and no blog or youtube channel, I had little hope of ever finding an audience on the internet. But this little story on Quora reached 100,000 readers and garnered 5,000 likes. Some Quora users in the medical field have copied my story to broaden their own reach.

The most satisfying was the woman who asked me if she should see her doctor too, because she too had noticed that her armpits were not the same. Yes, I told her, you can do it, you are strong, do it now.