Lourdes Hernandez - Breast Cancer
As an overworked attorney with a family, Lourdes Hernandez lived life at 150 miles an hour. Even when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, it was more of an annoyance than a major threat to her life and health. “It was like a 10-ton gorilla that demanded attention and took over my already full life,” she says. “I was angry about cancer messing up my schedule.”
Two weeks after her 40th birthday, Lourdes found a lump during her regular self-examination. It turned out to be a cyst, but a follow-up mammogram found ductal carcinoma in situ, meaning it was still confined to the milk ducts. She had her left breast removed and opted to have reconstruction surgery at the same time. “I went to sleep with both breasts and woke up with both breasts, so I never had to deal with body image issues.”
However, cancer wasn’t finished with Lourdes just yet. Two years later, she found a lump in her right breast and had a lumpectomy. Two years after that, she found a lump along the scar of her original surgery that was diagnosed as invasive cancer, which required intensive chemotherapy and radiation. “I’m a firm believer in regular self-exams and early detection,” she says—a habit that resulted in the cancers being caught when they were most treatable.
Lourdes has been disease-free ever since, and doesn’t live in fear of what the future may bring. “You get your checkups, eat right and exercise, and appreciate what you have. I don’t want to waste one precious day with negative feelings.”