January 2, 2018, is a day I will never forget. The news came from India:
“I’m sorry Shruti, your dad suddenly passed away from a stroke.”
My dad, 62 years old, was visiting India and while he was there I got diagnosed with breast cancer. While I was fighting for my life here in Texas, he was fighting for his in India. Unfortunately, on January 2, he lost his fight. On that exact same day, I lost all my hair. In India, the old traditions were when someone died in the family all the men shave their hair out of respect. While my brother and sister were in India performing my dad’s last rites, I was shaving my head in the USA on the same day. As cheesy as it sounds it was so symbolic for all of that to be happening at once and it felt like I was shaving my head for him as well.
Let’s backtrack a little, shall we?
Who am I? My name is Shruti Babu and at the age of 38, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Prior to that day, I was healthy as can be and never thought this could happen to me.
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On October 15, 2017, I was taking a shower and felt a lump in my left breast. I decided to get it checked out immediately and it was confirmed that I had stage two breast cancer. After that diagnosis, everything happened so fast.
I immediately started 16 rounds of chemotherapy followed by a double mastectomy and a 12-hour reconstruction surgery.
Here I am today — almost exactly one year later — wanting to share my story with all of you because I never thought I would get cancer, but I did. I’m so glad when I felt something was wrong I got it checked out.
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Did you know doctors recommend getting a mammogram when you’re 40!!! If I had waited until 40 who knows if I would be around to even tell my story. One out of 8 women have breast cancer, scary, right?
However, one year later, I am back to my new normal and doing well.
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Early detection saved my life and I want it to save yours or someone you know. I am hoping through my story, hundreds of women will not wait to check themselves. More so, if you know someone in your family has breast cancer don’t wait until it’s too late, you can get tested to make sure you don’t carry the gene.
