In 2017, within six months of her regular mammogram, Lisa Barraza of Chula Vista noticed her right breast was itchy. While scratching it, she suddenly found some big lumps. She thought this was odd for her because she is diligent about getting her mammograms. But she made an appointment with an oncologist and a biopsy showed she had stage 3 breast cancer that had spread to her lymph nodes.
“At first I was nervous, crying because my mind just did not know what to think,” she said. “I thought it was going to spread to my lungs and I could not breathe and move to my heart and I am going to die. After I calmed myself down, I said to myself that it is breast cancer and can be taken care of.”
Barraza went through six months of chemotherapy. She lost all of the hair on her body.
“I had really long hair, but I cut it and donated it when I found out that I had breast cancer,” she said. “It was coming out in clumps and I looked really sick and really old. I got my head shaved and it felt so much better. I never wore a wig. Once in a while I would wear a scarf, but I wanted people to see that it is okay to be bald. You are still beautiful.”
After her chemotherapy, Barraza had a lumpectomy taking 17 lymph nodes on her right side, then radiation treatment. She said although it was all difficult, after it was over, everything looked good. She said unfortunately, due to the effects of treatment, she lost her job in administration.
“But I tried to stay positive for my family. That is what keeps me going,” she said.
Barraza said she was in remission and this year at one of her regular follow up appointments with her oncologists, the cancer had come back. It was in the same breast, so this time they performed a mastectomy first.
“I only did one breast because they say it is harder when you have them both done at the same time,” she said. “I do not want anything to hold me back. I want to continue living life happy and free. Then I did chemotherapy again and just finished in September.”
At 56-years-old, Barraza is now in remission. After the mastectomy she would not wear a prosthetic because she still wanted to make the statement that “you are still beautiful.” She began using it after her doctor told her that if she did not it could cause serious problems with her back and neck.
Barraza said people are told to wait until 40 to start getting checked for breast cancer but she believes the age should be younger, especially if breast cancer runs in the family.
“Maybe it could be detected sooner,” she said. “I ignored it for about a month, but if I had not gone to the doctor and found out how aggressive it was, who would have known? Just between my mammogram and diagnoses, which was six months, that is how fast it spreads. The sooner you know, the sooner you can try to put a stop to it.”
Barraza said the most important thing people with breast cancer need to know is to “never give up.”
“Don’t let it take you, you take it,” she said. “Many people think it is a death sentence, but it is really not. It affects everybody differently, but you can overcome it.”
