Unexpected Discovery During a Pickleball Game
A story emerged about a man in the United States who discovered he had cancer while playing a pickleball.
On the 26th of last month (local time), the UK’s Daily Mail introduced the story of 76-year-old Ronald Norman, who lives in California and has been enjoying pickleball for 12 years.
Pickleball is a sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and table tennis, where participants use a racket to hit a polymer ball with holes in it back and forth. Players on both sides of the net hit the ball repeatedly until one side commits a rule violation.
In June 2022, the opponent’s ball struck Norman in the right chest while playing pickleball as usual. Norman said, “Possibly the hardest I have ever been hit playing pickleball for over 12 years.”
As time passed, Norman discovered a swollen blue bruise on his right nipple. Though it was a bruise, Norman thought the symptoms would gradually improve.
However, Norman found it strange when the bruise did not disappear and went to the hospital for a thorough examination. There, he received information that he had stage 3 breast cancer with lymph node metastasis.
Treatment Journey
He underwent a mastectomy to remove his right breast and axillary lymph nodes. After the surgery, he received eight rounds of chemotherapy over 16 weeks and six weeks of radiation therapy. Even after the treatment is over, he has to take anti-hormone drugs every day for five years to block estrogen. This is to prevent breast cancer.
The treatment of male breast cancer is similar to that of female breast cancer. If the tumor is small, doctors can perform breast-conserving surgery, which removes only the breast cancer tissue and some surrounding normal tissue. However, most male breast cancer patients undergo a mastectomy because the cancer’s size is large compared to the size of the breast. The primary purpose of this surgery is to remove the breast and axillary lymph nodes altogether to cure the cancer entirely without any cancerous tissue. Usually, doctors also perform radiation therapy or chemotherapy after the surgery, depending on the tumor’s stage.
Like other cancers, it is essential to detect breast cancer early. If you feel a bruise on your breast or think something is wrong, you should see a specialist and get tested right away.
By. Lee Jong Ho
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