The Beginning

The diagnosis of breast cancer came as a complete surprise. 

For my 45th birthday, I took a week and a half off work and gave myself the gift of a breast lift.  It was something I was looking forward to and my visit to the plastic surgeon was meant to be nothing but a routine follow up.  The only thought on my mind was getting  the drains out and getting back to work. 

Alan was busy with work so Brittany (our 23 year old daughter) drove me to the appointment and was patiently waiting for me in the reception area.  When Dr. Saltz arrived he had two of his nurses with him.  They quickly checked out my drains and incisions.  He sat down and reminded me that they had sent all excess tissue from the surgery to pathology  .  He told me the news wasn't good as the report came back that I have Breast Cancer in my left breast. Dr. Saltz was teary eyed and his nurses were crying.  They had Brittany come back and I can only imagine her surprise at everyone's obvious distress but she was a rock.  A bit like her Mama. 

The next day, we had the presense of mind to ask for the pathology report.  This is how we discovered it was Invasive Lobular Carcinoma.  Only about 15% of all Breast Cancer are of this type (most are Ductal) and it can be very hard to detect as it appears as strings of cancer cells not necessarily as lumps/tumors.  This explains why my mammograms over the years have not detected it.  Also - the good news was we were HER2 negative (which is a bit of an accelerant in regards to cancer growth) and Estrogen/Progesterone positive (which means hormone therapy is an effective means of treating).  The cancer was less than .5 Centimeters.

We felt extremely lucky to have found this hard to detect form of breast cancer so early!! 

Armed with this information, we met with Dr. Leigh Neumayer at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.  She is obviously brilliant as well as highly recommended by the Komen Society.  Let's just say she can talk very fast and it was a good thing we came prepared, having done our homework on the topic.  Her recommendation was to have an MRI at Daybreak as a mammogram might be too difficult with my recent surgery still healing.  The treatment options as they currently stood were 5 years of hormone treatment (pill form) and due to the size it didn't appear that Chemotherapy would be necessary.  It was even possible to make a choice between Lumpectomy with Radiation or a Mastectomy. 

While we waited for the MRI appointment, we met with the Radiologist also at Daybreak.  It was a nice facility and Dr. Gaffney was reassuring that the long term side effects of radiation were not a big concern.  For the first time, we considered Lumpectomy with Radiation as a real option. 

The MRI day came and being excessively claustrophobic, I was given Valium so the experience was pleasant despite some issues with the MRI machine.  We really viewed this process as more of a formality but, to our surprise, that turned out not to be the case.  The results came in on Friday and we were surprised to hear that there was a 3 Centimeter mass detected.  Dr. Neumayer explained that it was possible that the surgery only 'clipped' a piece of the bigger cancer off.  This changed everything. Should this turn out to be cancer, Chemotherapy is now back on the table due to the size of the 'mass'.  The doctors would need to decide on whether or not chemo would come before or after the surgery. 

An ultrasound and possible biopsy is scheduled for tomorrow morning (Tuesday, Sept 17th).  Should the ultrasound not work...they will schedule an MRI guided biopsy later this week.  We also meet with the plastic surgeon (Agerwal) and Genetic Counselors tomorrow. 

We are so appreciative of the love and support of friends and family.  We will continue to keep everyone posted on this blog as we learn more about the diagnosis and treatment plan that is determined.  We feel lucky, blessed and loved.