he asked her to stand on one foot and go up on her toes and then repeat it on the other foot. she assumed it would be simple because she’s fit and strong.
“i could do it on my left foot, no problem. but on my right foot, i had absolutely no strength at all in my right leg. i could not get my heel off the ground. i said to him, ‘what the hell is going on?’ he didn’t know either.”
unnerved by the experience, beitz called her family doctor again and got in a day or two later to show her what was happening in her right leg. her doctor was concerned, too, and expedited the nerve test for the following week. sitting on the examining table, beitz overheard the doctors discussing evidence of nerve damage and deciding to reschedule the january mri for the next few days.
“by now, my heart’s starting to beat a little bit faster,” she says of the mounting worry and uncertainty. later that day, she was called to come for the mri on the sunday morning and that monday, she went in to see her family doctor – with one of her sisters for support – to discuss the results. she was told the reason for the numbness was a 6.8 cm mass in her sacrum, the triangular bony structure at the base of the spine.
“all i heard was the word ‘mass’ and it scared the crap out of me, because i’m like, ‘i don’t want this, get this out.’” a ct scan followed a week later that revealed a tiny 2.3 cm lump in her left breast, which was the primary source of the cancer. the good news was that while the cancer had spread to some bones, it hadn’t spread to any organs.
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