1) The narrator, a 12-year-old girl, felt a lump in her left breast after hitting it on a desk at school. She told her grandmother, who dismissed it as normal breast development. 2) When the pain and lump returned, her breast was red and hot. She told her mother and they went to the hospital, where the doctor said it was inflammation. 3) The pain continued, so her parents took her to a specialist. He examined her and said it could be cancer, though they would need scans and surgery to know for sure. 4) During surgery, the doctor removed a cyst from her breast. She recovered from the surgery with no cancer diagnosis.

1. Stevens 1
La’Acura Stevens
English 101
Professor A. Bolton
January 30th 2012
Never Wait or It Might Be Too Late
Just like any other twelve-year-old girl, I was into singing, make-up, and unfortunately,boys. One
day in school, I was putting my books into the desk and hit my breast on the desk. The pain I felt that
day was not like any ordinary pain that I had ever felt before. I started thinking okay this will go away in
a little while, and I left it alone after that. After a couple of days, the pain did resolve itself, but now
there was a lump in my left breast. I was afraid, and I had no idea who I could tell. Both my parents were
busy at work, and I knew they would not have time to take me to the doctor. Instead I told my
grandmother. “MA! Can you come here I want to show you something”, I said. She entered the room
and said, “Why are you yelling in the house and what?” I told her about the lump, and she looked at me
and laughed “Silly girl, you are just getting breasts now, no more boy chest for you” she said laughing, it
was a sign of relief to hear her say that.
After a while the same pain came back and so did the lump. This time, it was different my left
breast was a bright red color and it was hot to the touch and the lump was there. I knew this was not my
breast growing I knew something had to be wrong with me. When the thought of cancer popped in my
head, I ran and told my mom, who later rushed me to the hospital.When we got to the hospital, the wait
was making me sick in the inside. All I wanted to know was did I have cancer at twelve and why me?
When we finally got to the back and were able to talk to the doctor, he said that it was “inflammation”
me I did not understand that but, I knew it wasn’t cancer. I was happy that it wasn’t anything serious I
could wipe the sweat off my brow now, and I was in the clear.

2. Stevens 2
Temporarily, the pain had gone away and then it returned. Then, my parents knew we had to
get a second opinion. We went and visited my family doctor who referred me to a specialist in
Charleston. He referred me because he noticed the lump and wanted me to get another person to look
at my breast. Bynow, my one left breast had twice the size of the right one, which was not normal. My
doctor’s appointment with the specialist was a day that I had school, and I was so nervous about it, I
remember having a panic attack. Most twelve year old girls were probably picking out new bras when I
could not wear any because the touch of something against my breast irritated it.
Now, it was the time I was waiting for the moment when everything would be unfolded. We met
my new doctor who was a man, and that made me uncomfortable at first. He was nice when he walked
in, I was sitting on a table. He said to me “Hello,La’Acura, we’re going find out what is making your
breast sick it is my goal to figure it out, okay.” From those words, he became my hero. I knew that day
that I would not walk out that hospital until he found out what was wrong. Then, he started poking me,
looking at making me and making me do all kinds of funny things to figure out was going on inside of
me. The doctor made me jump, walk, and, bend over all to see if this lump was weighing me down or
not.
After all that he finally said the words that I never thought I would hear again which, was cancer.
My doctor had said it could be a form of cancer, but they would not know until they gave me an x-ray
and ultra sound. With the x-ray and ultra sound they could only see a solid figure and not exactly what
it was. After he finished having adult talk with my parents, he turned to me and said. “Danay, we are
going to have to do a surgery on you, to find out what is going on okay? Do you understand that it could
be cancer and cancer is not a life sentence?” I really did not hear him all I heard was “cut me open” and
“cancer” everything else did not matter. He also made sure to tell me that he did not think it was cancer,
but he was going to look and see.

3. Stevens 3
The day for surgery had come and I was nervous, but I really don’t remember anything but
waking up. When I woke up, my doctor had a purple Popsicle waiting on me along with good news. He
said, “Danay, the lump in your chest is not cancer but it is this thing called a cyst. It is just fatty tissues
and we drained it because it was a little too big.” All I could hear was my mom gasp like she was happy
and she thanked my doctor for not giving up on me. I was happy, it was not cancer and passed back out
from the medicine I was given.
If I would have waited it might not have gone this way, I could have had something more than
just a cyst if I did not seek help from the start. Now that I am 19, I do not wait until the pain is
unbearable before consulting with my parents or a doctor. Even now, my incision reminds me of how
close I came to having something more serious than a cyst.