Dear Friends and Family,
Some of you know and some of you don't. For those that are hearing this for the first time, feel free to hit the delete key. Last Tuesday evening I discovered a lump in my right breast. It sits fairly high up on the chest wall and has been itchy along with a really dull ache on that side. This prompted a phone call to the doctor and an appointment was scheduled for last Friday. I saw the nurse practitioner. She thought it was a cyst and tried to aspirate it. Note to self here - get sonogram first - aspirating solid masses is rather painful and I do not highly recommend it. She then sent me to the Radiology clinic for a sonogram. They actually did two sonograms (once with the nurse and once with the head dr from the clinic). It was then decided that I needed another mammogram of the right side. After all of this was over, the doctor called me into his office and compared the December 2008 mammo to the one taken on Friday. There is nothing in the December one and a large solid mass in the latest one. His suggestion was to immediately get it biopsied and said he was immediately calling the Doctor's office with the results. I go back up to the 1st doctor's office (and with some struggle) manage to get a short list of surgeons. The surgeon I chose was in the same immediate area and immediately scheduled an appointment for Monday afternoon.
On Monday, Dr. Bradshaw (the surgeon) reviews the results of the mammograms and tells me that there is a greater than 50/50 chance that it is cancer. He orders a needle biopsy to be done and I am lucky enough to get one on Wednesday afternoon. BTW every time they take a sample, it sounds like a staple gun going off. Not painful if you have enough drugs. I go home with an ice pack and orders to not lift anything for a few days. The imaging center said the results would be with Dr. Bradshaw by Monday. Dr. Bradshaw actually got verbal confirmation that I do have breast cancer, otherwise known as invasive ductile carcinoma. He asked that I come into his office Friday afternoon so we can discuss what is next. I am borderline between stage one and stage two cancer because of its size (1.8 x 2.0 cm). We won't know for sure until he actually removes the cancer from my body. There is also a chance that it has traveled to the lymph nodes.
An MRI has been scheduled for this Wednesday. This will help confirm the location and size of the cancer. Appointments with the oncologist and radiologist are also being scheduled for next week. The oncologist will decide if I need any more scans of my body. Breast cancer has been known to travel to the brain, bones, lung and liver. She will also determine the course of treatment based on the pathologist report. I have two options, a mastectomy or a lumpectomy. The perks of the mastectomy would be plastic surgery reconstruction so I could have a "buy one, get one free" perky boob moment (as one would be covered by insurance. There is no difference as far as success rate, etc between the two surgeries. At the moment, we are leaning toward a lumpectomy but we still have lots of test results to do. The lumpectomy comes with 6 weeks of radiation therapy for 5 days a week and then chemo.
Tentative surgery has been planned for the 17th. He would have done it this next Thursday but I have a lampworking class that I am taking (and not willing to give up) so the following Monday is looking pretty good. I am having to cancel out of several horse shows I am scheduled to judge in the upcoming months. He wasn't excited that I could actually BE IN A BARN. OMG! But he is worried about infection, etc. His words were but there is horse poop and dust there. Yea, no kidding. Plus there is that naggy 5 days a week of radiation that I can't miss.....
Thanks to everyone who has kept me in their prayers. It means alot to have a strong support system to lean on. I do apologize for the shock value of this email. I just can't call everyone. I have also been posting my status on Facebook so come join and look me up. At this point I am not giving up any of the activities in my life so WhooHoo! Hang on for the RIDE!
Vicki
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