Eimear Coffey

I better go and get that checked out.

And I went.

My GP wasn't on that day.

I went to a different doctor that I'm not used to.

And she examined me and she said, look, you breastfed.

You know, it's probably just the tissue from breastfeeding.

You know, when you feel it, your breasts can be left kind of feeling a bit lumpy after the breastfeeding.

She said, you know, keep an eye on it.

So I said, OK, grand.

And I remember my parents worried about me saying, get your bloods and get your blood pressure and get everything checked and so on, so forth.

This is about a year after the breakup.

So I said, yeah, that was grand.

I said, no, the breast was fine, but it did change and the lump did get bigger.

But I kept kind of putting it off, Brenda.

I kept thinking, I know, sure, she said it was just the breast, you know.

And sometimes denial is a form of coping, isn't it?

It's like, oh, if I stick my head under the sand, none of this is really happening, you know.

So I remember the girl, my manager in the school at the time, Joan was getting a breast check and she said she needed a day off or something for the breast.

And I said, yeah, yeah.

i'll cover you no problem yeah yeah and i said you know what joan i have a lump and i think i she says oh emma get that checked out get that checked out and i said yeah do you know what i'll go back and i'll go back to my own gp and get it checked out so my dr finnegan sent me off and he said look it's covid they're going to do a triple assessment when you go in so don't be they're they're just not going to have you go in and out and in and out they'll do a triple assessment and sure i didn't even know what a