It all started with the call that no one ever wants to receive. My doctor called me 15 months ago late on a Friday afternoon and told me that the biopsy results came back and I had breast cancer. The big “C”. Huh.
After digesting this tidbit of information, I picked up the phone and called my friend, Amy, who had been with me for the biopsy. Amy was a breast cancer survivor herself so I thought that if anyone would know what I was feeling, it would be her. Amy would be my “I’ve been there, done that” support. Another wonderful friend who was a RN, Kathy, became my “medical” support. I cannot imagine what I would have done throughout this ordeal without these two gals. A support system is essential. Did I mention that a support system is essential?
Life started moving at a fast forward speed for the next month. Every part of my body was tested, x-rayed, and/or scanned. It felt like they tested everything except my fingernails. I guess it’s the whole “measure twice, cut once” mind set which was fine with me. I have to admit some of the tests were pretty interesting. I’ll go into some of the details a bit later.
The final results of all of these very expensive tests showed another small lump on the bottom of my breast (the original lump that I found was very high up actually above the breast). Now the lumpectomy solution was no longer an option in my mind. The only choice I had now was to decide if I wanted to have one or both breasts removed. I started out wanting to keep my nipple and ended up no wanting to keep anything. Get that stuff out of my body! A double mastectomy was performed 5 weeks after I found the original lump. The choice to have a double mastectomy was not made lightly. There are a lot of personal factors that went into this decision which I will explain in another post.
So, surgery is done. Both breasts are removed (actually, the surgery report said they were “amputated”) along with sentimental nodes in both breasts. The nodes looked fine in the surgical suite but were sent for further testing. The next day the results are back and there is cancer in one of my lymph nodes. Back to surgery I went so that the lymph nodes could be taken on that side. Two surgeries in two days. Good thing I was a strong, healthy person before all of this began.
I had about 4 weeks to recover before chemotherapy began. Thank goodness that I had those 4 weeks because chemo kicked my butt. The whole chemo experience deserves its own post so let’s just let say here that chemo was hard. Actually, hard is not a strong enough word. Let’s make that, it felt like chemo was killing me. I had always heard that if the cancer does not kill you, the cure will. Boy, was that ever dead on right.
So, I finished up chemo. Fortunately, I did not have to have radiation. There was a light at the end of the tunnel. I was going to finish up this whole breast cancer thing and get new boobies! Yippee! I had decided to have reconstruction started during my initial surgery. After so many months of being so sick, I was so ready to get my new boobies. Two months ago, I finally got those new boobies. Boy was I disappointed. My perfect boobies were now a former shell of themselves. Not only did they hurt 24/7, they were butt ugly! I did not sign up for this (course I didn’t sign up for breast cancer, either but here we are).
After a massive amount of research, I am now going to have my boobies redone using a free flap surgery. I am scheduled for this 14 hour operation at MD Anderson in Houston in two weeks. I am hoping that this will be the final chapter in my breast cancer story, but who knows. One thing I’ve learned is that I have to keep an open mind and be ready for whatever happens.
My goal for this blog is to provide information and a support system for others. I’ve glossed over much of the whole “breast cancer experience” but believe me, I will go into the nitty gritty details in later posts. Keep checking back for the next installment of my breast cancer story.
My Breast Cancer Experience 