First introduced to us as very stylish and fashionable, Hope Erlenborn Meushaw set the record straight by saying, “I definitely wouldn’t label myself as having a good eye for fashion, but I can tell if something just does not look good on me.” That’s why, shortly after her wedding, when she was diagnosed with stage 3b triple negative breast cancer at the age of 28, she was quick to acknowledge that two things would not work for her when she lost her hair due to chemo: wigs and most hats.
Hope was living in Atlanta pursuing her masters degree at Emory University when she was diagnosed. With a nursing degree and an understanding on the workings of her own body, Hope thought twice when the first radiologist she saw responded to her ultrasound by saying, “Don’t worry, it’s nothing. See you when you are 40.” And two weeks later, she thought twice again when a nurse practitioner and surgeon told her she had nothing to worry about. “I did something I didn’t expect,” Hope shares. “I broke down in tears in the surgeon’s office and begged her to take another look at the lump. I didn’t care if it was a mammogram, an ultrasound or an MRI. I just knew this mass wasn’t normal for me, and I wanted to know what it was.” After what Hope describes as a barbaric and incredibly painful (whether you have a massive tumor in your breast or not) bilateral mammogram that showed nothing, she was given another ultrasound that was followed with the recommendation of a biopsy.
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