- Saturday March 15, I found a lump in my left breast during a self exam.
- Monday March 17, Called the doctor's office to schedule a visit
- Tuesday March 18, physical exam completed - based on the exam, they estimated that the size of the mass was approximately 3 cm. Diagnostic mammogram scheduled
- Wednesday March 26, spent the day at the breast imaging center.
- completed 2 rounds of mammograms
- ultrasound
- biopsy (left)
- aspiration (right)
- diagnosis of breast cancer
- organize with nurse to get scheduled with surgeon
- I advised the nurse at that moment that I would opt for a double mastectomy so she could make a note wherever she needed to. She looked surprised and I asked, "Doesn't everyone tell you that?" She responded with an emphatic NO. To each her own.
- Thursday March 27 - received official biopsy results which showed two types of breast cancer (left side only), DCIS & IDC. I'll post a page with the details on each but the key one here is IDC. While DCIS remains in the milk duct, IDC is Infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma - or in scarier terms, it's also referred to as Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, which simply means it can travel. The pathology report confirmed that the cancer started where we found it, so there were no source tumors in other locations we needed to worry about. Based on the ultrasound there was involvement in much of the left side of the breast but they didn't see anything in the lymph nodes and I had found no swelling or bumps in the nodes via physical exam, nor had the doctor. I was given my scheduled appointment date with the surgeon. It was originally scheduled for April 16th but we were able to get it moved up.
- Wednesday April 9 - met with Dr. AJ (who is FABULOUS FABULOUS FABULOUS FABULOUS). He did a physical exam and then he met with Bobby and me about options. Peggy, the Nurse Navigator (great!!) was present for both. He took the time to review the actual test results, including the path report from the biopsy and walked us through the options. I let him review everything but all were aware of my wishes. Though no cancer was found in the right breast, I felt the right thing to do was go ahead and remove them both and move on. He was supportive and we moved on to scheduling. Oh, at this point, with the data from the mammograms, they weren't sure if the mass was a large single mass or possibly 2 smaller ones. We would only know for sure after surgery. The clinical staging that point was Stage II but we were aware that could change with the information gained after surgery.
- Tuesday April 15 - Surgery day! Operation: Bye Bye Boobies, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. Only real new news was they did find "some" in the lymph nodes so had to have some of those little suckers removed. ****Yes, I am planning on having reconstruction but for optimal results, it is recommended that any reconstruction be held until 1 year after radiation ends. That means I may get a chest for Christmas 2015. Radiation does bad things to your skin and as a result it would result in a less than desirable outcome. I shall remain Frankenstein-ish for the next 19 months, or so. It's just scars and skin and it's only temporary.
- Wednesday April 16 - Discharged from the hospital (with no boobs and 2 drains) and spent some recovery time with my FABULOUS parents. What a blessing they are. The other blessings are OBVIOUSLY my perfect husband for taking on a lot of responsibilities in a very short amount of time. Blessed that my fabulous in-laws stepped in to assist as well. Neither Bobby nor I are very good at asking for "help" but we realized early on that if people offered, we needed to accept. Support is SOOOOOOOOOOO important.
- Wednesday April 23 - Follow up visit with Dr. AJ. He removed all 2 million staples (my rough estimate) and I lost the drains! Excuse my French but those things SUCKED! (both literally and figuratively, I guess). Weirdest sensation having those removed. It should be it's own page post. Anyway, he said everything looked good and then he took the time to review the pathology report. Turns out, it was a single mass and it was significantly larger than all initially thought. It was almost 6 cm and with the < 3 (for you kids who think that's a heart, it really means less than 3) lymph node involvement that let me graduate from Stage II to Stage III. ugh! Seriously?
I'll cover staging on a page because most people (including me pre-cancer) don't really understand the particulars. I like to use the analogy of the Chinese restaurant menu - pick one from column A and one from column B and there you have it!
Scheduling began for appointments with Physical Therapy, Genetic Counseling, Medical Oncologist, Radiation Oncologist. - Wednesday April 30 - early morning visit to surgeon for some fluid aspiration (RELIEF) followed by the first meeting with my Medical Oncologist (aka Chemo Doc). This was a pretty unfunny meeting - he was pretty serious, as I'm sure he needs to be with most patients, but I was able to loosen him up a little by the end. We discussed the recommended course of treatment - an aggressive one because of the staging of my tumor and my "young" age. I will have 4 chemo drugs given in two sets of cyles. The first (and worst, side effect-wise) will be 4 infusions 2 weeks apart. That will be followed by 12 weekly infusions of the cycle 2 drugs.
He also ordered the dreaded battery of scans. For those of you who don't know, different types of cancers have "favorite" places to setup shop in the body...if they are able to travel. For breast cancer the hot spots are:
Brain
Lungs
Liver
Bones
None of that sounded like anything worth having, not to me anyway. So, the tests ordered for me, and to be completed in a single day, included: - MRI - Brain
- CT Scan - Lungs, liver and pretty much everything in the torso.
- Bone scan - uh....bones!
- I also had a cardiac echo scheduled prior to "Scan Day" aka "Nail Biter Day". This is done in order to make sure that everything looks good and also to provide a baseline because the chemo medications can cause damage so I'll be monitored regularly.
- Thursday May 1 - Appointment with Genetic Counselor. FASCINATING appointment. It will require it's own post once the results come back in. That appointment was followed by a consult with the Radiation Oncologist who will be handling my radiation. That treatment will entail 33 daily (weekday only) treatments which last about 15 minutes or so each. The staff was fabulous and fit right in with my craziness. That's not going to be so bad.
- Friday May 2 - heart echo completed
- Tuesday May 6 - MRI, CT and Bone Scans completed
- Friday May 9 - Port placement surgery/procedure (outpatient).
- Monday May 12 - Physical Therapy
- Wednesday May 14 - 1st of 4 "round 1" chemo treatments. If we have no delays, these will occur every 2 weeks until complete.
- Thursday May 15 - Back to the office for my 1st Neulasta injection (The Hell Shot). Basic info here is that this drug helps speed white blood cell generation in an effort to shorten the amount of time where I would be most at risk for infection. This one has side effects that make me way more nervous than chemo nausea and hair loss. It can cause some really, really horrible bone pain. I'll do a Neulasta post at some point. I'm participating in a research study (gotta take one for the team to help future pink ladies in their fight) so I rolled the dice and they randomly chose what I would be taking to help control the pain. Oddly, Claritin seems to be the most effective option and my prayers were answered - I randomly drew Claritin!! Small victory. lol The other options were Naproxyn or nothing. Whew!!
So, here we are. Two months in. As of right now, I am not experiencing any side effects. I'm eating right, drinking a lot of water and I've been taking my nausea medicine since the day before treatment in hopes of keeping it under control. I'll post updates as I can. It has taken all day to write this particular post and I'm a little tired (awake since 1:30 AM) so there may not be another post today. But, as always, with me, you just never know. ;-)
Love to all!
Andee
Andee