"Put your own oxygen mask on before helping others." We’re all familiar with the phrase, and it’s a motto that us mothers are urged to remember, regardless of whether we are traveling or not. But as I’m sure any parent will attest to, family life is hectic and unpredictable. I’m a mom with four children under the age of 10, so finding time to prioritize myself was impossible.
I grew up in Massachusetts and it’s where I met my husband. We moved to Tokyo for a few years with our two oldest kids, Rose, 10, and Grace, 8, while our third, Liam, 4, was born there. After a while, we moved to upstate New York for my husband’s job, and that’s where our youngest, Jack, 2, was born.
As wonderful as it was to enjoy so many different experiences, by 2025, I needed to come back home. We were lucky enough to find jobs and moved back to Concord, right down the street from my parents and one of my sisters. I was working at Harvard, my husband loved his new job, and our kids were going to the same daycare that I went to many years ago.
It felt like everything was finally coming together. Don’t get me wrong, life was incredibly busy what with the move, new jobs and four young children, so we were kind of in survival mode. Life just took over and, as a result, I forgot about my health.
Before we moved back to Concord in August 2025, I remember feeling this lump in my right breast at our old house. I was still breastfeeding my son at the time, and I reminded myself that boobs change so much during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The lump was maybe the size of a marble, but as I was nursing and my breasts were also larger, it was hard to tell if the lump itself was changing.* But it turns out, I wasn’t the only one who noticed it.
I remember thinking how weird it was that the boys disliked feeding from that breast, but there were no alarm bells. By the time I found the lump, I thought I should probably get it checked, but that I would wait to see if it was still there when I finished breastfeeding. When I was breastfeeding my sons, they did not like nursing from the right side at all.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
