All About Me AGAIN

Al's doing well, thanks for wondering. Having some swelling of the lymph nodes in his neck that we're watching closely. He has another CT on Monday and we see Dr. Beck -- hopefully for the last time -- on August 4.

Me, not so good. Cut to the chase -- I have breast cancer. My family's informed, and my dearest best friend; some things should be delivered face-to-face.

Anywho, back to the details (nothing gory, promise). I do a monthly Breast Self Exam about the first of each month (and you should too!). I thought I felt a lump, but got busy with our 3rd of July adventure and weekend activities. Remembered Sunday morning, double checked for myself, and even made Al check both sides to see if he felt something different. I've never seen his face go white so quickly before. THEN he started 'talking me down' -- that it's probably just an enlarged lymph node, I've had fibro-cystic breast issues in the past, yada, yada, yada. But we agreed I'd call my doc first thing in the morning.

I did, and they worked me in over her normal lunch break. She examined me, ordered a mammogram and a sonogram (which is evidently standard operating procedure in their office). They showed me both 'films' and there was a definite ugly black blotch on the sonogram; I couldn't tell jack from the mammogram.

Set up a biopsy for Tuesday morning, wherein they numbed my boob and used a needle to extract 7 samples from the mass to send to the lab. Then they inserted a titanium 'marker' in that spot so that if it were benign they'd know for future mammograms we'd already examined it, etc.. They did another mammogram to ensure the marker was in the right place.

My doctor's office called me Wednesday morning to say I have infectious ductile cell carcinoma; I went back over the lunch break again, and the radiologist had requested an MRI. That was entertaining (I've never had an MRI before). So now we're just waiting for the detailed, final report from the radiologist which will probably take about a week. Then I'll be scheduled with a surgeon in Wichita, probably another week. Evidently the local surgeons still believe total mastectomy is the only answer, so my doc won't refer me to them (thank goodness!). I'll be seeing a breast cancer specialist, who will present me with my options and her recommendation. I'm expecting a lumpectomy in early August, presumably followed by chemo and/or radiation.

I'll be doing updates from here instead of sending out e-mails like I did for Al. I just needed to share a bit, bring you all into the loop early on, and of course remind you to get your mammies grammed.

Nothing's happening any time soon. Or as Al says, "Hurry up and wait".

Thanks for your support. I'll be talking to you.
xoxoxo
tos