Let there be light...

Yesterday started out normal - work till 11am, then met Kimmy on the corner and we walked to the surgeon appointment where Christina and Casey (my hubby) joined us soon after.  We met with my Oncology surgeon first Dr. Demore, (by the way - love her) she told me the details of my MRI - which again shows only evidence that the cancer is contained to the mass on my right side, the MRI was only of my boobs, nothing else.  She explained what is next she explained that I will have a Sentinel Lymph node biopsy (which means they will run blue dye into the mass area, it should run towards the lymph nodes)  from what I understand this will show if there is any cancer in my lymph nodes.  This procedure will be done on April 9th late in the day.  I will return to UNC on April the 10th (at 6:30am) yipppeeeee for the lumpectomy, surgery and recovery will take approximately 4 hours all together.  At this time she will cut a incision under my arm and check out those lymph nodes - she will biopsy the nodes and we will wait to see if it has gone to my nodes.  I might have to edit this once my NOTE TAKERS read it :)  She will sew me up and I will head home.  I will be out of work for one week returning back on the 21st.    My next surgery which is reconstruction will be May 5th, by Dr. Dammits from UNC - she is awesome too!!!  Because of the location of the mass and how the surgery will be done, this is where the reconstruction comes into the journey!!   I met with the plastic surgeon yesterday afternoon and she spent a lot of time with me and explained a lot.  That surgery is a bit more intense and will require me being out of work for 2 wks - and get this no housework for 4 weeks.  WOWZEER ---I have to find jokes in all this to keep my spirits up!!!  :)  This is our plan for now and will be the plan unless genetics come back with something different.  So I guess I will be getting lots of rest between now and 2 wks from now.  I didn't realize until the last 2 Wednesdays how tiring staying a doctors visits could be.  Thanks you guys again for all the kind gestures, calls, texts, FB messages and cards.  You have truly made this girl feel loved!!!! 

Light of my Presence

The results are in from my MRI on Friday..I spoke with the nurse coordinator on the phone and Dr. Demore says no cancer is in my left side....the mass that is in my right one is 1.9cm in size (a bit larger than a pea) she didn't see anything that gave her any evidence that it had spread in that right side boob at all.  She seems to think it is contained to that pea size mass.  It was great hearing that and now we move forward to meet with the surgeon tomorrow to get more of "A GAME PLAN" together.   Thank you again for all the calls, texts, FB messages and emails.  My cup runneth over. 

God brought me to this I know he will bring me through it!!!

So for those that know me, know I love UNC - so we go to the visit....it starts out at 1:30 (I was on time) :)   I got my long list of appts and off I go.   I met with the genetics team - the reason for this is that when you are diagnosed with breast cancer at a young age, they want to test you and make sure its not in your genetics....super nice lady she reminded me alot of my hubbys dad, she had a very thick accent and you had to listen to her to understand her.  So she explained what they would do and I was good with her piece of the puzzle.  The Genetics lady is the one who told me what kind of cancer I had which is Invasive Ductal Carcinoma  - this is all we knew at this point.  So we have to have blood drawn today!    So next we see the radiation oncologist (who we liked) her name was Dr. Jayne, she actually is the one that sat down and explained to us the details of the cancer.  So then we see the surgeon - Dr. Nancy Demore - she examines me and explains to me a few things, at this point I have surgery on April the 10th for a lumpectomy and reconstruction.  Once the surgery is done and the pathology report comes back we will know then what my treatment will be.  We had genetic testing done on this day and if that comes back positive with certain genetics, my treatment and surgery will be totally different.  So for now we know what the cancer is and we know tentatively what my treatment will be.   

The journey begins....

So on Monday the 17th, I returned a call to the doctor that had spoke to me on Friday and asked a few questions and wanted to know what was next.....when she called me back she told me she had turned my stuff in and I would be seen that same week by a team of doctors at UNC.  Later that afternoon I get a call to be at UNC on Wednesday - March 19th and she told me to bring more than one person because the appt would be overwhelming and I would need another set of ears.  With all that being said I gather my hubby, and 2 great friends and we went to UNC on the 19th to meet with the team of doctors!!! 

First hearing the results

So throughout the week I had some kind of crazy reaction (had to be to the lidocaine) they used during my procedure, I know odd - sometimes for me nothing is easy, so I dealt with my lips being burnt,swollen and chapped painfully all week.  I finally called my OBGYN and she called me in some steroids to help my pain.   So Friday March the 14th comes around, I had not heard anything.  At this point I was getting relief from my lips, so I started to call for the results.  After 3 phone calls that day I finally got a phone call back at 4:55 that Friday afternoon.  I will never forget the phone call itself.  When she said I had BREAST CANCER, it seemed as all the words after were jumbled.  There wasn't any information given to me at that point.  I went into the weekend in a really confused state of mind.  I had no idea what would happen next.  

The beginning of this Journey

So it all begins.....I first noticed a small lump on the day of Feb 23rd during a self exam - which might I add I rarely ever did.  I was out of town that weekend with some 31 girls and I just thought it was my imagination.  I got home that afternoon and told my hubby about it and of course he was (just like any other guy) very willing to check it out.  It seemed to be very small in size, but we both knew it was something to address.  On Monday I called Burlington imaging to get this appt going, I had never had a mammo so off I go to the appt on Friday Feb the 28th.  It was an experience - because I had found a lump they decided to do an ultrasound that day also.  We were told that day that I would need a biopsy - she felt 95% sure that it was benign but we still needed to check it out.  So I got names and who I needed to call and got the biopsy scheduled right away.     It was scheduled for March the 10th. On March the 10th I went for the procedure in Hillsborough at the new UNC facility.  I, at that time met with Susan Mckinney (Oncology Nurse Practitioner), then I moved upstairs to where the procedure would take place.  It didn't take very long and we were on our way back to Mebane - with no power (this was from the ice storm of 2014).  There would be results in the next 24-48 hours....... so we wait!!!!