The Journey Begins

Mid - Late January:  Leaning over in the shower to dry off is how I first noticed my "lump".  I simply noticed that my right breast didn't look the same as it always had.  Of course I waited a couple of weeks thinking that it would go away before I called the doctor.

February 1:  I started teaching for a wonderful teacher friend of  mine who teaches 4th grade at my daughter, Maddie's, school.  She found out at the first of the school year that she had breast cancer.  I promised her that every time she had to go out for doctor's appointmnets or treatments and then surgery, that I would fill in for her.  She had surgery today so I started teaching full time.

Valentine's Day:  I decided it was important enough to see a doctor.  Once in the office, I placed my arm over my head like I always do for her to check me, and she immediately saw it.  She felt it and decided it was soft and moved around a bit, so she felt like it was probably a cyst.  Just to be on the safe side, she sent me for a diagnostic mammogram and an ultrasound of the breast. 

February 17th:  I headed to the hospital for the check-ups.  Once the radiologist saw my results, he had to come see for himself.  He felt sure it was not a cyst, but instead a cellular mass.  He ordered a biopsy right away. 

February 21st:   I went back to the hospital for my biopsy, this time with my husband.  Even though they deaden the area, it was still a bit painful.   The radiologist placed a marker at the site, so that in the future, others would know it had already been tested.  After the biopsy, I headed back in for another mammogram to check to make sure the marker was in the right place.  Once I finished with that, the radiologist stepped out of his office and asked me if I would like to come into his office and look at my films with him.  Definitely!  He showed me everything and in essence told me it looked like cancer to him.  O JOY!!  When I walked out after the appointment, I told Brian what the radiologist had said.  We both cried!!  I told my oldest daughter, Meredith, today.  She didn't take it too well.  She said things like, "That means you are going to die!" and "That means I will get it too since your mom had it and now you do too!"  After reassurance and some calming of emotions, she seems to be doing better.  Please keep her in your prayers!!

February 23:  My OB/GYN called and asked me to come in to discuss the results - they refused to divulge anything over the phone.  Once in the office, she told me I had been diagnosed with infiltrating ductal carcinoma.  My heart fell!!  I guess I knew that since my mom had breast cancer twice, my chances were fairly high, but I had hoped and prayed that living a healthy lifestyle would prevent it from happening to me.  God has bigger plans for me than I can imagine!  My doctor referred me to a breast specialist, Dr. Jo Pollack.  I am still hopeful that it is a candidate for hormone treatment and a lumpectomy.  Today is the day I told my younger daughter about the cancer.  She reacted much the same way as the older one.  Again, emotions are calmer now and she seems to be okay.  Please keep her in your prayers as well!  She is more emotional like me than my oldest.

February 24:  Dr. Pollack describes the tumor as mean and nasty.  It is small but ugly.  The meaning of that is that not only can it enter the body through the lymphatic system, but this one can enter through the blood stream.  My hormone scores were triple negative which means that it didn't respond to any of the hormones they treated it with.  She gives me the news that I will have six months of chemotherapy and then surgery.  At this point, I am not sure if I can make anymore tears to shed.  She sets me up with an oncologist appointment and schedules my surgery to have the port put in for chemo. 

February 25:  I went to school knowing I had my first doctor's appointment with my oncologist at 11:30.  I called the doctor's office to try and change the time so I would not have to miss the whole day of teaching.  Once the time was changed, I quickly ran to Methodist hospital to pre-register and do blood work for the surgery to put in the port on March 2.  I had already promised my youngest daughter, Maddie, that I would be at school to watch her in Jump Rope for Heart, so I hurried back to school to watch her for about 15 minutes before going to the oncologist's office at 10:15.  Brian met me there.  Dr. Naqvi is wonderful!!  My teacher friend uses her and has had nothing but great things to say about her.  She took us through all the biology and logistics of what is about to begin.  I will start chemotherapy on March 3 or 4.  I will have 4 treatments that are 3 weeks apart.  Once those are finished, I will do 12  more treatments; once a week for 12 weeks.  At the end of that I will have surgery.  She took blood to test me for the breast cancer gene.  If I am positive for that, I will have both breasts and my ovaries removed due to the high risk of cancer returning if I left them there.  The chemo will be harsh in order to kill  my type of tumor, but I am confident with the prayers of so many being lifted on my behalf, that I can handle it. 

February 26:  I took an anxiety pill for the first time in  my life in order to help me sleep last night.  It was wonderful!  I cleaned house, did laundry, and pulled weeds!  All very therapeutic! 

February 27:  Today is Sunday - the Lord's day!!  I am thankful for a church and church family that will get me through this.  My appointment for the all important body scans is tomorrow.  Please pray as you never have on my behalf, that the Lord will see fit to make my scans completely crystal clear!!

February 28:  Scans today!!!  I went in with my sweet friend, Laura, to get started with my appointment.  Her precious daughter had come down sick today, so she called in another sweet and long-time friend, Kela to take over her place.  In essence, I had to drink some "spiked" Propel water for the CT scans and get a dye injected into my bones for the bone scan.  The dye needed 2 hours to get all through my body, so I called my oncologist to see if I could go take care of my cardiologist appointment in the "off" time.  Why waste time is what I am thinking!!!  She called and asked for me and they let me go in  immediately.  Kela took me to the cardiologist's office and we were in and out in a little over an hour.  Awesome when you don't have to wait forever in the doctor's office!!!  The cardiologist assured me that I have a very strong heart and it all looks great!!  We headed back to get the bone scan done.  It wasn't really bad, but took about 45 minutes of lying as still as I could.  At the end of the scan, I asked my tech, Roderick, if there was anything I could pray for him about.  It was obvious that I had stunned him, but it was nice to think about someone other than myself.  What a great God we serve - I got the idea of asking that question from a speaker at Tallowood who suggested we ask our server at a restaurant if there was anything we could pray about for them.  Roderick just asked for prayer to keep up with his two young children (12 and 6).  You got it Roderick!!!  Trusting God with the results of the scans - won't know until Wednesday at 1:00.  Keep Praying!!!