What has happened so far...

It all began on our trip to Germany. We were staying at my friends place in Mainz when I woke up one morning with a dull pain under my arm so I rubbed it and there was a little lump there. Well I've had these before, always got them checked and they are always nothing to worry about. Just probably another hormonal thing so nothing to worry about right? Fast forward a month, we were back home and it was still there. I'm due up for a mammogram so I guess I better get on it. My appointment is scheduled for Sept 5. Five days later the doctor's office called and the doctor wants to see me the next week. Whoa - with our doctor shortage you just don't get appointments that quick around here so I'm thinking this can't be good. The next day they called again. 'We have a cancellation tomorrow can you come in?' . . . Oh oh.



Well, there is something suspicious looking on the ultrasound so I need to go in for a biopsy. That sounds scary so I go on the internet and google this. I need a ultrasound guided core needle biopsy. I have a one in four chance of this being cancer so I liked those odds. My appointment was scheduled for Sept 22. I had to be there at 9:30. We went into Saskatoon the day before and stayed with Jim and Joan.



The biopsy was relatively painless. They gave a local anesthetic which probably hurt more than anything. She made a small incision and took 5 samples from that little hole. It sounded like a big staple gun and she would warn me before each one but it was so loud that I couldn't help but jump every time! Afterwards she showed me the samples. They looked like little white threads about 1/2 inch long floating in a little pill bottle. Hmmm they looked innocent enough! Results in 7-10 days.



Sept 29 I have an appointment scheduled from a month ago for my yearly check up. As soon as he came in the room my doctor said he had the results of the biopsy and unfortunately it is cancer. When I heard the "C" word I think time stopped for a moment. This can't be right but he was so concerned and already set me up with a surgeon so I guess there was no denying it!



On Oct 6 I had my appointment with the surgeon in Saskatoon. He seemed like a pretty good guy. He took lots of time to answer all my questions. He will remove the lump with a pretty wide margin. They will also do a sentinel node biopsy where they inject a dye into the breast early in the morning. Then when they do the surgery they can see which lymph node it drains into first - the sentinel node. They will take a biopsy of that one and maybe two more to see if it has spread. If it has spread I will have to have more surgery, if not in 4-6 weeks I will start chemo. Yes it is the kind that makes your hair fall out. That freaked me out more than anything but I'm over it (for now). I will have 4 rounds of chemo which is 5 days of injections followed by about two weeks off. On day 22 I go for 5 more days of injections and so on 4 times. After that they will hit me with radiation. I'm not sure how many weeks of that I will have but I think I will probably glow in the dark by the time they are done with me. He said he was running 3 weeks behind so I thought that meant I would have surgery in 3 weeks. Nope. They called me within 3 weeks and my surgery is scheduled for Nov 18.