"They told me that breast cancer does not hurt": The diagnosis that arrived after the third birth

"Already during the pregnancy I felt a strange swelling in my breasts, and as I progressed, pain also started. Naturally, I feared cancer, but I was reassured when they told me that breast cancer does not hurt. And then, unfortunately, I proved the opposite - it hurts very much," describes Adi Schneider-Dori, who these days is finishing the long and aggressive treatment path she received to save her life. "The timing of the illness also played against me, because I was still depressed after October 7th, when my husband's aunt from Kfar Aza was murdered, and a relative was kidnapped along with other friends we know from the days we lived there."

Schneider-Dori, 39, married to Ofir, mother of Tal (12), Aviv (9), and Yuval (1 year and 4 months), residents of Kibbutz Revadim. She gave birth to her third son, and her world turned upside down. "Since then, there is no longer the Adi I was before the diagnosis of the disease. I am someone else, with other abilities, and with them I intend to return to an active life and my work - information management manager at the Ashdod Oil Refineries."

The point of no return in her life was marked at the beginning of April 2025, even before she gave birth to Yuval. "I dreamed of breastfeeding him too, like his two brothers before him, and I couldn't. In the maternity ward, lactation consultants were sent to me, and still - zero ability to breastfeed from the left breast, which was already red and swollen and suspicious of an infection that had developed in it."

Even after she was released home with a healthy baby in her arms, she had to use additional lactation consulting services, and felt frustration at the lack of response - the breast did not produce milk. "I was not negligent, and I turned to a breast surgeon in the community, who from a manual examination diagnosed that it was not even an infection, that I have nothing to worry about, and that I should return to him in a year."

The pain increased, and the nipple on the left breast sank. The family doctor referred her for an ultrasound, and the technician who performed the test hinted that she should go to the emergency room. "With the instruction I received in the emergency room for antibiotic treatment via IV, I returned to the family doctor, who planned five consecutive days for me to receive the medication. But already after the second day, which did not really reduce the swelling, she stopped the series she had planned and referred me to Dr. Orly Friedman-Aldar, a senior breast surgeon at the Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot."

Already from hearing the details, the doctor's suspicion arose. "Adi came to me a week after the birth, when her left breast was very engorged, red and swollen - a condition that was diagnosed when she was still pregnant, and therefore immediately suspicious, because an infection can only develop during breastfeeding. I immediately referred her for a biopsy, and the interpretation showed that it was an aggressive cancer spread to the nodes - Inflammatory Breast Cancer, which is called inflammatory breast cancer, even though apart from the appearance there is no connection between it and an infection," explains Dr. Orly Friedman-Aldar, a senior breast surgeon at the Breast Health Institute at Kaplan, who underwent a sub-specialization at the Jackson Memorial University Center in Miami.

Due to the potential for rapid spread of this cancer, an immediate therapeutic response was required. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in Israel. Every year, about 5,500 patients are diagnosed with it - statistically, this is one in eight women. According to data from the Cancer Association, about 1,100 breast cancer patients die in Israel every year.

"I entered a dizzying movie of immediate tests and imaging, while leaving a two-week-old baby at home. My husband joined me when Dr. Friedman-Aldar announced that I was sick with aggressive breast cancer, and luckily it did not send metastases beyond the lymph nodes."

In a race against time, she met the very next day with an oncologist from Kaplan, who ruled that the first chemotherapy treatment would take place that same day. "It was in August 2025. I understood the urgency, but I remembered that the children were on summer vacation and that I had promised my daughter to spend time with her at a hotel, so I asked if a delay of a few days was significant. Thank you for allowing me, and after three days I started walking the path of chemotherapy, according to the treatment plan that was tailored for me and included 12 weekly treatments and four additional ones at intervals of once every two weeks."

Friends from the kibbutz supported and helped at home, with a baby and two other children who needed her, she "collapsed", according to her, from weakness and the side effects of the chemotherapy. "To my great luck, the kibbutz proved itself as a supportive community. When I was so helpless that I couldn't feed and lift my baby, friends cooked for us, took the baby for a walk and supported me. They didn't leave me alone for a moment. A close friend of mine came every day, and literally picked me up by the hair."

At the end of the chemotherapy, which reduced the dimensions of the tumor, she was invited for pre-surgery, and there it was explained to her that in addition to the mastectomy and the nodes, under the same anesthesia she would undergo another surgery to prevent lymphedema - a lymphatic edema caused by a blockage of the lymphatic system. The risk of lymphedema following the removal of lymph nodes ranges from 5% to 40% of those operated on.

"Lymphedema that is not treated leads to disability, and in order to prevent it, Dr. Karkuf-Sela and I join hands, unite forces and offer the potential patients the preventive surgery, at the same status of the mastectomy," explain the two doctors. "We inject blue dye into the arm, on the side where the cancer was diagnosed and removed, to locate the lymphatic vessels whose thickness is 0.8 mm. When the vessel is found above the removal area, we preserve it to allow the fluid to flow."

Dr. Sharon Karkuf-Sela, a senior plastic surgeon at Kaplan, who returned from a sub-specialization in microsurgery at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, explains: "When the surgeon finishes isolating the lymph nodes and removing them, under a microscope I work on the veins and the lymph vessels, with the goal of cleaning and lengthening them. I perform a bypass and anastomosis between the lymph vessel and the vein. It is a microsurgical operation intended to improve the range of motion that was damaged due to the removal of the lymph nodes from the armpit, and its results are good."

Adi returned home to recover while connected to two drains, and experienced a mental breakdown. "The moment I arrived home was perhaps harder than the moment the doctor told me about the cancer. I left the hospital without a left breast, and when I stood in front of the mirror, all the realizations fell into place and I couldn't stop crying."

She underwent lymphatic and movement physiotherapy, while her range of motion is still limited and minimal. To complete the treatment, she also received radiation, and as of now her range of motion has almost returned to normal. "The next challenge that I already want to check off, and return to a life path that does not include tests and hospitals, is the breast reconstruction surgery. Living with one breast is living in imbalance - the posture changes, the walking, all the feeling. And I feel that the reconstruction is already within reach, close and encouraging."