Breathe
By Rina Gitler
I don't believe in chance or luck; I believe in destiny, and that's what happened for me to be here today. Our lives intersected at a key moment, and I feel motivated by the invitation to write in Opinion 51, a space that brings together brilliant women.
Being a brilliant woman does not exclude you from breast cancer. Just because you are a woman, you are predisposed to suffer from it (although 2% of the cases diagnosed in Mexico are in men).
Today, which is my first column, I want to tell my story so that everyone who reads me knows that #ATodasNosPuedePasar.
Like many of you, I thought I was Wonder Woman and that I was exempt from various things happening to me, including suffering from breast cancer. It's ironic, but that "suffering" has brought me the best things in my life, like finding a mission.
In 2009, during a self-examination, I found an abnormal growth the size of a lentil in my breast. I am a surgeon, and it is worth mentioning that doctors are the worst patients; in total denial, I made my plan, wanting to think it was just a simple fatty lump. The next day of the discovery, I had already self-programmed myself to have my partner and friend remove the supposed lump of fat. Fortunately, when I told him my plan, he told me bluntly: "You know there is a protocol, and if you want me to treat you, it will be as I say". It was at that moment that I received the most important lesson in humility I have ever had: to accept that I was now the patient and that there were doctors much more qualified than me to do what needed to be done.
In less than a week, I was diagnosed and had begun treatment. I never doubted that a bilateral mastectomy with immediate reconstruction (removing both breasts and reconstructing them in the same surgery) would be the right thing to do, since both of my grandmothers died of cancer. When I was given the diagnosis, as is common in cancer patients, I never asked myself, "Why me?". I always had in mind, "Why me?". The answer was clear and, besides, maybe for the first time I appreciated how fortunate I have been in my country, Mexico: from having grown up in a house with access to health and education, in a home without violence and with a major medical insurance that allowed me to be treated with the best, wherever I chose.
I watched my life go backwards and forwards, being grateful for every extra minute, and in my conversations with God, the only thing I asked for was a second chance at life for two reasons: my daughters. I promised God that, if He gave me this opportunity, I would do everything in my power to help more Mexican women live through the cancer process with dignity and integrity. In addition, I felt the commitment to give back to Mexico all that it has given to my family, being the second generation born in this great country, which allowed my father to become a businessman and my grandfather, upon his arrival from Poland, to become a prominent rabbi in the Jewish community in Mexico.
This is how Fundación ALMA was born, to perform breast reconstruction surgery for women cancer survivors who cannot afford to pay for this last part of the treatment. To date, we have benefited more than 800 women with free surgeries. Our breast health education program, through my friend Edmee Pardo 's publication "El brasier de mamá", has reached many corners of Mexico. We have donated more than 10,000 external prostheses in 18 states of the Republic.
Because of this story, I am happy to be able to write in the future in Opinion 51 about cancer issues that no one talks about and share my philosophy of life: "SURVIVING IS NOT ENOUGH".
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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