In 2012, at the age of 52, Beverly Soucy had scheduled her first mammogram ever, then presented with a persistent pneumonia, having to cancel and reschedule the procedure twice.
“My instincts told me something was wrong, but I was thinking I was in for a heart attack or something – I never dreamed it would be breast cancer,” she shared. “When I finally did the mammogram, I was on my way out, and the doctor chased me down the hallway, asking me to humor him and return the next day for a biopsy.”
The humorless biopsy quickly turned into 12 separate needle explorations into her breasts, found to be riddled with cancerous masses, and a diagnosis of Lobular carcinoma. This type of cancer is found in the lobules, the milk-producing glands, and is said to be the second most common form of breast cancer, affecting 10 percent of women in the U.S.
“Getting that diagnosis changes you,” she shared. “Everything stands still. I felt as though I went through the double-mastectomy, numerous painful procedures and treatments, then reconstruction surgery, all in a daze. It felt as though my brain was pushing everything I went through to another place, to protect me – or I would have just crumbled under the weight of it all.”
Soucy said she came home from the mastectomies with a bag full of prescription meds, Oxycontin, Oxycodone, Percocet, and more. The first time she took the Oxycontin, she said she “went mental.”
“I think many people just sink into the pharmaceuticals to push back on the reality of what they are going through,” she pondered. “All the pills take your spirit away, until you are just wallowing in a pharma-induced haze.”
Soucy shared that her saving grace was when a dear friend, who had just gone through prostate cancer, arrived at …
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Author: Sharon Letts / High Times
