“I have to see you because you have breast cancer.”
The words of the doctor, said in a matter-of-fact way, were like a bomb dropping in Kyla Organ’s world. After feeling a small lump around Christmas of 2013, she took a while to speak to her doctor about it. It wasn’t until April of the follow year that she finally brought it up.
At only 43, Organ did not see herself as at risk for breast cancer. She ate well, exercised, drank minimally and she had no family history – so she sat in her doctor’s office in disbelief upon hearing the News.
“It was shocking to me because if you look at the entire list of people who are more susceptible to breast cancer, I have nothing,” said Organ.
Yet that doctor’s appointment, in the middle of an otherwise normal day, changed the course of her life.
“It’s surreal. You can’t imagine it,” said Organ. “I was just so angry and so frustrated … it took a long time to gain acceptance.”
A month later she had both breasts removed in a bi-lateral mastectomy. They found two lumps smaller than a centimeter.
While a double mastectomy may seem an extreme measure to some women, she said she would just worry too much if she hadn’t done the procedure.
“If I just had a lumpectomy, which is just taking the tumor out, then I would worry that they didn’t get it all, will it come back, I think I would just worry. If they’re both gone then the likelihood of it spreading is much less,” said Organ. “I didn’t have a big chest, I had no identity with my chest so it wasn’t as big of a deal for me.”
After the surgery, her tumors were sent to pathology where she had to wait for the result.
What type of cancer is it? Do I have more? Will it spread? Will I pass on the gene to my children? These and many other questions stirred in her mind as she waited three weeks for the results.
“That is the worst part, the waiting,” she said.
But Organ received positive News: the cancer wasn’t aggressive, and the doctor said she was a lucky one.
She had to send the samples to another lab to determine the likelihood of the cancer reoccurring. She waited another two to three weeks before the inconclusive results came back – it may or may not return.
“The psychological part is the hardest part to get your head around. I remember even driving home after we got the results, my husband’s like ‘why aren’t you excited?’ and I’m like I don’t know. First of all, I was like instantly exhausted I think because all of the stress kind of just hit me,” said Organ.
She is cancer free now, but she still has to take certain medications in the hope of preventing any further cancer.
Organ is walking on Sept. 12 in the One Walk to Conquer Cancer, held annually in Toronto to raise funds for Princess Margaret Cancer Centre to help conquer all forms of cancer.
One Walk estimates that two in five Canadians will develop cancer in their lifetimes, and one in four will die from it.
“I just heard it on the radio and I just thought that maybe that was something that I can do to help,” said Organ.
In her first year walking, she has already raised more than $9,500 herself. Her team, “Breast Impressions,” has already raised 60 per cent of its $29,500 goal.
“I’ve had a lot of great sponsors – or supporters – which I’m very grateful for,” said Organ.
Through her ordeal, she said her husband Matthew and their two children Chelsea, 12, and Ryse, 10, have been her inspiration.
“You can get so sucked into it but they are just so normal. Although they worry, and you can see them worry, it’s still just field day or whatever,” said Organ.
“They keep you grounded.”
Donations can be made to Kyla Organ or her team Breast Impression at onewalk.ca.
