The Deets

Okay...one more post for the night.  As promised, I want to catch everyone up on the specifics of my cancer.

I never found a lump.  I actually had some dimpling and my skin looked a little funny but that was it.  So I went to the doctor in early December but was told I was fine and to put my mind at ease, I could come back in January to see my original doctor (who was away at a conference at the time).  Well, a week passed and there wasn't any changes so I called and got back in to see the doctor.  This time, I saw my doctor and she also didn't feel a lump but agreed it was a little suspicious.  So I ended up having an ultrasound, mammogram and biopsy done on 12/14.

On 12/17 I got a phone call stating that it was Stage 1 invasive ductal carcinoma.  Invasive ductal carcinoma is the most common type of breast cancer that women get.  I can't even begin to try to explain the feeling I had as the doctor was telling me.  I could tell he hated this part of his job and he felt really bad having to deliver this news to me.  In my head, it was like tunnel vision as I was trying to come to terms with what I was being told but I couldn't deal.  I was at work and just broke.  My boss actually saw me on the phone and she knew right away.  I ended up having to call the doctor back once I was calm because I felt like I had to know everything he did.  He told me it was Stage 1 grade 2 (meaning average growth).

The next day I had an appointment with a surgeon and my breast care team.  They presented me the facts and Adam was right there with me to take it all in (in case I forgot any of the details).  I got to speak with some nurse navigators who were also breast cancer survivors too which I found incredibly encouraging knowing that they made it through all this and knew what I was going through.  We also had a breast MRI done that day. 

In looking back at that 1st week, the worst part was the waiting.  Waiting to find out more information...waiting to see if this was going to kill me....waiting to see if there was more cancer...I was a mess.  I didn't want to eat and it took everything I had to keep it together as best as I could.  Thankfully Adam has been by my side the whole time.  I was also fortunate to have my family supporting me through all of this (yes, that include you in-laws too!).  We got the final MRI results back and learned there wasn't any more cancer showing up on the MRI! Yay!

It was around this time that we also learned that the cancer was ER+ and PR+.  This has to do with my hormones making the cancer grow and overall is a good factor because there are medications available now to help treat this.  I also learned that the cancer was HER2+.  This on the other hand is good/bad.  It's another indicator on how the cancer grows based on duplicate copies of protein being made.  As my surgeon put it, it's bad because it's an indicator for the cancer being more aggressive, but it's good because they also have medication now to help treat this as well.  All in all, the way I see it is that we caught it early enough before it had the chance to become really bad.  Again, soooo thankful that we caught it when we did. 

From there it was a matter of making the decision between a lumpectomy and a mastectomy.  With the lumpectomy, they just remove the tumor site and some surrounding healthy tissue whereas a mastectomy they remove almost all of the breast tissue.  I was able to get the lumpectomy sooner than the mastectomy because the mastectomy would include reconstruction and we'd then have to coordinate OR time with my surgeon and an plastic surgeon.  In speaking with many people, I finally opted for a lumpectomy.  I was told, you can always change your mind later and opt for the mastectomy but there's no going back with initially deciding mastectomy.  The mastectomy would have been 6-8 weeks out whereas I was able to have my lumpectomy within 11 days from date of diagnosis.  If I had it my way though, I would have had them cut it out the day of the consultation.

Surgery was on 12/28.  The day of, I was nervous as crap.  I was really fortunate though to be able to have an amazing support system.  Adam, my family, and so many colleagues from work came to support me.  My boss even came to sit with us for 5 hours before we went in to the OR.  Prior to having surgery, they had to do what they call wire localization.  The doctor who performed my original biopsy had to insert a wire where the tumor was for the surgeon to locate it during surgery and inject a dye that would notify the surgeon which lymph node the breast tissue drains to for the sentinel node biopsy.  He numbed the area up and tried to see if he could feel the lump but couldn't.  He told me, "I hope you realize the miracle you've had in finding this when you did."  I couldn't agree more.  No one could feel it, the mammogram didn't show anything due to dense tissue, and we only saw it on the ultrasound.  He put the wire in and injected the dye and before I knew it, I was on my way back to the OR.  All in all, for as nervous as I was for that part, that was nothing.

In the end, GREAT SUCCESS!!!   The surgery went well, and I just woke up kinda loopy.  Adam couldn't wait to get me home and was practically dragging me out of the recovery room when we were stopped because I had to be wheeled out in a wheelchair.  I don't think I even got all of my discharge paperwork.

About a week later, I got the final pathology report.  I had negative margins meaning they got all of the cancer out.  They ended up removing 2 lymph nodes under my arm.  The first lymph node showed micrometastesis for cancer cell (really really small amount of cancer).  The second lymph node was clean.  As scary as the lymph node sounds, they were confident enough they got it all that I didn't even need to have more surgery to remove more lymph nodes.  Obviously if I had a choice, I wouldn't want cancer in my lymph nodes but this is overall pretty good.  The final tumor size was 1.4cm.  Final stage was Stage 1B. 

So...all in all...prognosis is really good.  My team is confident that granted the next year is going to suck but then I'm going to go on living my life.

With the HER2+ and the micrometastesis, the recommendation from my medical oncologist is chemo, radiation, Herceptin, and hormonal therapy.  Because of this, we'll be going through IVF before the start of chemo.  Needless to say, C-Day (chemo day) starts 2/1 so there is a lot that needs to happen before now and then. 

I was told I'm going to lose my hair so to acclimate myself to this, I've decided I'm not going to let cancer own me any more than it already has.  I'm going to shave my head when I'm ready to.  But....to ease into the process, I'll be cutting my hair tomorrow.  Oddly enough it costs more to use your own hair for a wig than someone else's.  SO...tomorrow we will be going to a salon and cutting my hair.  We'll be sure to post before & after pics :)