One night, after all that activity, I remember having pain on the right side of my ribs, extending into my arm and breast area. Looking back, it was probably musculoskeletal pain from all the activities we had been doing. But that pain led me to notice something else—a very small mass in my right breast. The lump itself didn’t hurt. I had a history of breast cysts, so I assumed that’s what it was. But as a board-certified internist who had cared for patients with breast cancer for years, I knew I couldn’t ignore it.
