The Weekly Advertiser – Wednesday, May 5, 2021

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Vol. No. Vol. 2318No. 43 27

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Wednesday, January 2016 Wednesday, May13, 5, 2021

Be vigilant, be kind BY SARAH MATTHEWS

A

s a former aerobics champion, long-time personal trainer, mother, wife and volunteer, Amanda Wik was used to being in control.

She juggled her responsibilities, managed her commitments with precision and of course, was fighting fit. Then she found a lump the size of a pea in her right breast and suddenly, she was not in control of anything. While trying to secure a doctor’s appointment, and soon after, a mammogram, Amanda kept telling herself everything would be fine. “I was terrified, but I kept telling myself it would be fine and it was just a lump,” she said. It wasn’t. Amanda was diagnosed with two types of breast cancer on November 9, 2018. The cancer was stage one, grade three and grew in a week between two sets of biopsies. The cancer was aggressive and so was Amanda’s treatment regime. “I had a lot of tests, some of them not so nice – I found biopsies quite terrifying,” she said. “Some of the tests are mind-blowing and you still don’t know what’s going on. “I had to go into a zone to get through it. But after the diagnosis, that’s when the whirlwind really started.” On November 30, Amanda had surgery to remove the cancer and reconstruct her breast. “I went to plastic surgeon Derek Neoh and breast surgeon Elaine Bevington, in Melbourne,” she said. “I had decided to reconstruct, so I was cut more than 180 degrees around my tummy and tissue was taken out to reconstruct my breast. “It was scary and it hurt like hell. “But I only have a small cut in the side of my breast and everyone says you can’t even tell I’ve had surgery. They did an amazing job.” Then came the treatment. “I had a port put in, which was another horrendous experience, because

everything is out of your comfort zone and out of your control,” she said. “I liked to maintain control of my life and I had to let everything go. “I had to let the people around me and my specialists care for me and do what I needed to do to get through it.” On January 9, Amanda started the first of three courses of chemotherapy, every three weeks for three months. “I had to be hospitalised because I was so sick, 24-7,” she said. “By the end, they had to knock me out with drugs.” After that, she started a weekly stint of chemotherapy for 12 weeks. “The first one was a nasty one. The 12-week one, they say a lot of people don’t get through it, but I managed to get through it with minimal side effects,” Amanda said.

“I also started Herceptin, which is a 12-month treatment every three weeks. They were all at Epworth in Geelong.” Amanda said she chose to have her treatment in Geelong to be close to her daughters, Rebecca, 25, and Meghan, 21. “The cancer centre here wasn’t up and running and my girls had a rental house there and could take me to treatments and look after me while Stephen was back in Horsham working,” she said. “After treatment we would go to the beach. I was all covered up in towels and umbrellas because I had to avoid the sun, but I could just watch my family swim, or just sit there and take in the ocean breeze. It was lovely.”

Amanda Wik

Amanda said despite her positive outcome, the treatment phase was ‘also horrendous’. “It’s hard for me to believe I’ve actually done it and been through it,” she said. “I am a totally different person now. I see things differently. My body is not my body and I have had to learn how to be a different version of me.” Cancer also takes a toll on mental health and Amanda still sees a psychologist. “I’m not afraid to admit that, because it really plays on your mind,” she said. “Some days I have good days and then other days, I get caught up wondering if it’s going to come back – or when it’s going to come back, be-

cause they’re the ones you hear stories about.” Amanda’s oncologist has declared her ‘cancer free’. “He doesn’t call it remission, he says, ‘until we know otherwise, you’re cancer free’,” she said. “Remission makes it sound like it’s coming back. You’re just in a holding pattern.” Throughout the process, Amanda chose to have genetic testing. “I was thinking about my girls and what the future for them is,” she said. “But the results came back to say I was a really, really low risk. The girls just might have to start some mammograms earlier.” Amanda said one of the main drivers behind sharing her story was raising

awareness of the importance of selfchecking. She said it was also vital for women to know the signs and symptoms of breast cancer. “Before all this, I thought the only sign of breast cancer was a lump in the breast,” she said. “But I had other signs and symptoms, such as discharge from the nipple and an itchy nipple, but I didn’t know they were signs. “There are probably eight or 10 symptoms, which a lot of people wouldn’t even realise, because we just think it’s a lump.” Amanda said she put her symptoms down to hormones until a chance encounter with a potential client. Continued page 3

IN THIS ISSUE • Water plan part of larger venture • Mother’s Day Classic • Football-netball action

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