GETTING TESTED FOR HER DAUGHTERS AND GRANDDAUGHTERS: Eleanor Davis (far left) underwent the BRCA gene test after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Having almost all granddaughters, she feared the mutated gene would transfer to them. Pictured alongside her are her granddaughters Jill and Alex Holloway and daughter Glenda Holloway.

It can be difficult to write about something as personal as cancer.

For nearly four years, I’ve found myself writing about women who have battled breast cancer, and I know they often wonder how I could possibly understand what they went through.

I can’t understand what their journey was like, but when they bring up their family and how it impacted them, I relate even though I wish I didn’t.

My grandmother, Eleanor Davis, better known to me as Gran-Gran was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019.

For the first time, I will now share my family’s story in my Gran-Gran’s own words.

According to Davis, she was watching one of her favorite television shows, while wearing one of her silk gowns, when the show got to an exciting portion. She then grabbed her chest, ready for the action, but instead was met with what felt like a lump.

“It was a knot,” she said. “It was just the way everyone described it; it felt like I had a black-eyed pea stuck there.”

Davis said she immediately called her physician and made an appointment, and they were able to get her in the following day.

Davis said she had regular mammograms from age 40 until she turned 75.

“I had heard when you turned 75, you could stop getting them,” she said. “So, for the past three years I had skipped them.”

Davis now admits she wished she never would’ve stopped having mammograms and that she is lucky to have felt that knot.

“I was praying all the way to the doctor that I didn’t have cancer and it was something else,” she said.

Davis was immediately brought back for a scan and the technician told her that without a biopsy, she knew it was cancerous just by looking at it.

Davis became extremely upset and called her daughter, Glenda to come sit with her until she could calm down enough to drive home.

The following day, Davis met with a surgeon, who gave her two options to remedy the situation.

He told her he could remove the lump or perform a mastectomy.

Davis informed him she just wanted the lump removed, but back at home, her children convinced her otherwise.

Glenda and her brothers, Doug and Rick, told their mom she needed to have her breast removed or the cancer would return in just a matter of years.

Davis called the surgeon to inform him she had changed her mind, and was met with reassurance that he also felt like that was the best option.

Surgery was scheduled short after and Davis had her left breast removed, along with two lymph nodes in her left arm.

“I have had a lot of difficult surgeries in my life,” Davis said. “But, the morning after I had my breast removed, I woke up hungry and was hardly sore at all.”

Davis elected to not have reconstructive surgery, because of her age and because of previous conversations with her Sunday school class.

“I was almost 80, and after talking with women who had the reconstructive surgery, they said it was just a much harder recovery,” she explained.

Since having her left breast removed, Davis now faithfully to get her mammograms every year.

“The worst part of having breast cancer was knowing I had it, and that it could spread at any time,” she said. “I never want to have to go through this again.”

Davis also opted to undergo the BRCA gene test for breast cancer risk.

The BRCA gene test is a blood test that uses DNA analysis to identify harmful changes in either one of the two breast cancer susceptibility genes. People who inherit the mutations in those genes are at an increased risk of developing breast cancer.

“All my grandchildren, except one, are girls, so I got the test,” she said. “The outcome showed there was a good chance it would not spread to my daughter and grandchildren.”

Being a granddaughter of Davis’, I waited on those results with panic.

I wasn’t sure how I would’ve responded had the results showed a different outcome.

However, that does not mean I’m in the clear, and the day I turn 40, I will probably find myself in a doctor’s office getting my first mammogram.

Breast cancer impacts everyone, and while I’m thankful my grandmother is here with us today, I know that is not always the case for everyone else.

My thoughts and prayers are with everyone who has been impacted by this terrible disease and my wish is that some day there will be answer as to why one in eight women develop breast cancer and how we can combat that.