An almost “unreal” year between medical examinations, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and beautiful meetings. In remission of breast cancer, Gilberte Chung recounts her experience in a book: “Breast cancer coup de grace or moment of grace on the way to healing”.
“I didn’t cry for a while. I didn’t wonder why me? “ Of course the day the diagnosis falls is a shock for Gilberte Chung. A “Mass of seven millimeters in the right breast. It didn’t even make a centimeter ”. Then sadness came. Because it was necessary to mourn a part of your body. A part so eminently associated with femininity for the one who does not hide that it is “Coquette and a little ‘alert'”. A breast associated with maternity for the one who gave birth to three children. It lasted a year, between medical examinations, surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and beautiful meetings with other patients.
This journey between “The screening test, October 24, 2023, until the last radiation, November 22, 2024”Gilberte Chung tells it in a bookmark. Coup de grace or moment of grace on the way to healing has just been published. Whatsapp messages, deep thoughts, a whole series of testimonies from other people with cancer. Speech is also given to the widower of a patient who died of breast cancer. So many cross paths to strengthen against the disease to overcome.
Two cardinal points of the story: take care and do not isolate yourself. Aged 62 at the time of diagnosis, Gilberte Chung has assumed her duties as director of the Diocesan Service of Catholic Education (SEDEC) during her processing year. She who did not find time before, went back to sewing and hook to make – helping with tutorials seen on YouTube – breast prostheses.
Everything starts from the family circle. On September 27, 2023, Gilberte Chung learned that her sister-in-law, who lives in Canada, “Suffers from invasive breast cancer” And must have been operated three days later. “It’s tilt in my head. I have never been mammography. The mammography is still scary (…) at the next family dinner, I ask my two eldest sisters if they have already made a mammo. The two answer me yes (…) I am the only one to have never done a screening test. My last meeting with the gynecologist dated at least ten years. ”
Retrospectively, Gilberte Chung thanks this sister-in-law “Who is much younger than me. Otherwise, I think I would not have done a test ”. Direction l’association Link to Life For a breast ultrasound. Followed by the visit to the general practitioner, who writes the prescription for mammography. Then the meeting with the surgeon, who explains to the patient that she is among the “3 % of women who come to consult it so quickly, following a screening test and for a mass as small as seven millimeters”.
If the rhythm of the story is supported during this hectic year, in reality, “I hesitated a lot” As for surgery, says Gilberte Chung. She first takes the time to spend a family vacation to do the disease to her children, who live abroad. There was no question of telling them about this on the phone. Then, at the beginning of 2024, with the start of the school year, it was the time for professional obligations. All of this was possible because screening was early. From October to March, she also takes the time to put order in her business. Because unaware, she thinks of the worst.
Six months go by during which Gilberte Chung knows that there is “Something acting in [son] corps». She turns and turns a question in her head: should we do the mastectomy or not? “For many women, that’s the question. Should we remove everything? One side? Should we remove the other breast too? Doctors say that Mauritians are much more drastic. Some women will say: ‘remove everything, like that it’s over. “ There are also post-operative questions. “Do you need a breast reconstruction?” Wear a prosthesis? In other countries, especially in Europe, reconstruction is automatically offered. This is not the case in Mauritius. ” His numerous research on the net refers to him images of women with a single breast or completely flat, who have been tattoos after the mastectomy. Seeing in advance how we will become physically was therapeutic.
What did his experience of local care taught him? “Doctors, today, have a more human approach”she notes. She believes she had the «chance» to come across a surgeon specializing in breast cancer. “At each stage, he explained to us how it was going to happen, to my husband and I. This first contact is carrying. But you can come across a doctor who says nothing to you at all. ”
What about others on the cancerers? Has it evolved? One of the compulsory treatment is chemotherapy, hair loss and other side effects. When her hair, which she usually wears short “Fall by clusters” After the second week of treatment, she decides to shave her head. “And have fun with turbans. It was my new look ”. Gilberte Chung recognizes this: “It is a disease that is still taboo. There are lots of women who don’t talk about it ”. But society knows how to recognize the signs: at the sight of a woman with a shaved skull, “Automatically, we will say that she is sick. That she has cancer “. The looks were full of“empathy” and “solidarity. I did not feel any rejection. Never”.
Once the loneliness of surgery is passed, the chemotherapy comes where the patient finds herself with other patients in the same room. They are only separated by curtains. Conversations become confidences. Gilberte Chung has six programmed sessions. She meets the one, who is at her twelfth session and who has 20 in total. Or this 18 -year -old girl who suffers from it. She also meets the “95 years old, who has cancer”. Which allows him to put into perspective. “I have no right to complain.” Some of these women deliver a plot of experience in Gilberte Chung’s book. Once the six sessions are over and that it was necessary to undergo radiotherapy, “I couldn’t do it anymore. I wanted to end it as quickly as possible ”. Turn the page.
And now ? A chapter is called “And life continues”. This is the hormone therapy stage with a tablet to take every day for five, seven or ten years, “We will see, because the cancer I had is linked to hormones”. This is the remission stage. It could come back.
* Breast cancer coup de grace or moment of grace on the way to the healing of Gilberte Chung Kim Chung. On sale at Rs 200. Available at Link to Life, Breast Cancer Care and the Le Cygne bookstore. The revenues will be fully donated to the two associations.
Testify to help
Tell your first -person experience. For Gilberte Chung, “This can be beneficial for other people. There are so many women who pass by. I escaped it beautiful ”. His message insists above all on early screening. “I had no symptoms.” It was screening that detected the disease at an early stage. What does she say to those who fear mammography? “Many women say they are afraid of mammography. Yes, it’s a bit painful but it’s a small second of pain, of discomfort. But at least you will know if you are ok or not .. ” This book is not just a testimony, it is also informative, with information on several types of cancers.
