It's important for me to remember one of the worse days of my life as I was going through the process of the breast cancer diagnosis. I have invasive ductal carcinoma. Stage 1 thank heavens. Treatable. From the get go I have faced it with a positive attitude. I know I will be ok. But this particular day was terrible. They needed a biopsy of the lump that was found so I scheduled appointment in the morning. I need to add that at this time I already knew there was cancer from the mammogram. Now they wanted a sample. So when I got the news about the cancer my mom panicked and said "get off the soda today!!!" So I stopped drinking Diet Coke which results in horrendous withdrawals and headaches which I had this morning. A bad choice. To top it off I also had vertigo. Bad vertigo. I don't know why, I don't know how, but I had it. And it was horrible. So when I pulled up to Kaiser and parked the car I was crying. I honestly don't know how I was going to make it into the building on my own. So I prayed that Father in heaven would hold my hand as I went through this. And I did it for my family. I kept thinking "do it for your kids". And I was blessed. The radiology asst that helped was wonderful and compassionate. She calmed my nerves. The biopsy was removed with what sounded like a staple gun. With each sample there was a loud noise and out comes a chunk. The hard part was waiting in the hall in radiology dept with my open in the front hospital gown until they made sure they got a good sample. My head was killing me and my vertigo was keeping me from looking up and around. I don't exactly remember why they needed biopsy even though they knew there was cancer already. They need to look at everything under the microscope. Needless to say I made it through. Went home and got into bed.
Sunday, February 28, 2016
October 26, 2015...another life changing day
On Oct 26, 2015 after a routine mammogram, I find out I have breast cancer in my left breast. Here's my first photo-getting ready for an MRI so they can see if there are any other signs of cancer. Good news is they didn't see any other signs of cancer.
Our first check up to find out what plans they have for me...Brad doing a little jig to lighten things up. This time I am on the exam table!! Diagnosis-A lumpectomy and also a few lymph nodes under my armpit will be removed and biopsied. Then most likely radiation treatment for 4-6 weeks, everyday. Little did I know that this this photo will go down as one of the last photos of my real boobs. Weird.
Lumpectomy day..first thing...they have to put a needle marker into my breast so my surgeon, Dr. Kolpac can see where to go. Yeow. Got a numbing shot right where it counts, in the nipple. I had to get a mammogram after this too! They sat me in the hall until the mammographer was ready. Ha! I couldn't resist taking a photo of this and sending it to Brad seeing as he has a chest port now. We both have apparatuses hanging from our chest!!
Selfie as I wait for mammogram before surgery.
So, the bad news is after we got the lumpectomy results back they said that they did not get all the cancer. There was more. This call brought me to my knees and I cried
and cried because I knew what was to come. I had talked enough with family and friends about taking the breasts off with a double mastery if it was bad enough. I thought I was one of the lucky ones that just needed a lumpectomy and then be done with it. This is my pre-op appointment. This appointment was a little depressing hence the sad face, then I decided, no sadness...stay happy and positive , so I took another!
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