I'm back

I want to first thank everyone for the support, visits, dinners, comments, letters, EVERYTHING. The support is positively overwhelming. It gives me a great sense of love and support. I know I am not going through this alone and the support is keeping up my spirit and faith, which, will help me get through this.

Okay, so it's 6 days out of surgery. Right now I'm doing good sore and going out and about on my own nowadays. Every little thing does drain my engery, so as long as I can take naps in between tasks, I'm good. Today was an extra long day. Three doctor's appointments with the reconstruction and breast surgoen and my genetic testing results. And here we go....

First my healing, everthing is going well. Not much to really report there, I did have two drains removed. Everything looks good. As many of you know, I didn't have a cluster of lymph nodes removed because they were to close to a main vein going to my heart. The reason the nodes were to hard to remove was because they were cancerous and hard, like pebbles. My doctor was concerned that to much tugging on the lymph nodes would damage my vein and if they were damaged there is a chance I could loss my arm. Good news is that they are going to hit me, as Dr. Smith says, "with everything including the kitchen sink". She is very confident that this going to kill everything left.

Now for the scientific jargin. I am in Stage IIIc. My tumor was > 5cm and 18 out of 36 lymph nodes tested positive. The cancer is not any where else. I'm a little shaky on the actual structure of the cancer cell but got the basic and importance of it. It tested negative for a protein that makes it immune to chemo, YEAH! It also tested positive for estrogen. That basically means the cell feeds on estrogen, so hormone therapy will release an estrogen like protein. It will actually be like a poison when the cell tries to eat it. So, another YEAH!! Everything appears to be treatable.

So, the way I understand everything is that the chemo will kill any cells wondering around my body, the radiation will attack the localized area where they were found and the hormone therapy is going to get anything left behind. Obviously, this is going to be a long battle but everything is looking positive.

The last thing is genetic testing. Well, it turns out I am positive for a "deletrious mutation" in "BRCA 2 sequencing. Basically, this bumped my chances of getting breast cancer to 84%. Scary, huh? Even if I would have been tested four years ago, I don't think I would have went under the bilateral mastechomy but I would have been tested 6 months. Maybe caught this earlier but I can't really get hung up on that now. Right now I have cancer and a long fight ahead of me. I am just focusing on resting and staying healthy (and yes everyone I changed my diet, I now choke down vegetables).

So, there you go.

So, forget everything I said before

On Wednesday, I got off work early for a doctor's appointment. Before the appointment I stopped by home and received a surprising call. Turns out my doctor's were able to arrange their schedules and get me in early. WAY EARLIER. My surgery date has been moved to April 21st. So, it's pretty real now, very real. I was pretty frantic when they told me. I immediately realized Wednesday was my last day of work. I called work and got everything in order there, well, I called Noelle and asked her to get everything in order (thank you again). And then I called Jose. This really caught us off guard, we both felt so unprepared. I still feel unprepared. I guess up until now, everything was just words.
Well, anyway, my surgery is at 1:30 and I should be out about 5 p.m. To be honest I am not sure how much I will be up for visitors that day but visiting hours are open 24 hours. Everything else stays the same. I will be in the hospital Wednesday and depending how I am doing can be released that day or Thursday. If you plan on writing the date on your calender put in pencil. Okay, Jose will try to keep everyone updated on Tuesday.

Side note: My dad recently had a disc replacement in his neck. He is out of the hospital and doing well at home. He is still resting so if you have any questions give me a call.

About time

Well, as most of you know it's been very frustrating waiting and waiting for my doctor's to set a date and now it's here. My surgery is set for May 18th. I feel a little weird for being excited about the date. I am just glad things are now moving along. It seemed like I was never going to get a date.

The surgery will be in the morning and likely to last 4-5 hours. Both my Doctor's are great, Dr. Smith especially. I should be staying in the hospital about 2 days. Chemo will be about 3-4 weeks later. So, about June 15th (maybe). It's nice to have some type of timeline. It's all still tentative, well mostly the chemo portion. But it's something, I will take it.

I am going to be out of work for about 6 weks and will try to work through chemo. But we will see, I know I will have to be flexible during that time and know when to call in sick. And I promise I will.

K'bye

How it started

So, this is a little late but I wanted to have an easier way to update everyone. There is so much going on right now and everything seems to be changing every week, it's hard for me to keep up with it. Well, I will just start from the beginning.


(deep breath) On March 20, 2009, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. All together, BOOOO (yes I stole that line from you Saidi)!! I have to say, when my doctor first told me I wasn't surprised. For some reason, I always knew it was coming, but I never thought it would be this soon. I think the knowing that I had a high risk and deep down knowing it was in my future has helped me deal with it (I know morbid). But I also know everything will be okay and this is just a minor speed bump in my life. Right now, I'm just very anxious to get this part of my life over with.


I will be treated at St. Jude hospital in Fullerton. So, far it has been a very pleasant experience. First things first, the type of cancer I have is Infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma (IDC). The name pretty much tells you where it is. It's in my ducts and is also found to be in a lymph node. I have already had bone scans and a PETct. The results were negative, so it hasn't spread anywhere else. I have also started on hormone therapy, which cuts off the hormones that the cancer is feeding on. So, as of now, it's not going anywhere.


As far as my surgery, I will be getting a bilateral mastectomy with immediate reconstruction. This is mostly a preventive measure on my part. I did take a genetic test but have not got my results. I may not get them for another two weeks, but due to my mom's age at her diagnoses, I am sure we all know the results. Even if it does turn up negative, I will sleep more at ease, knowing I did what I could to prevent this from happening again.


Next popular question, What stage are you in? I don't know. That answer is not going to come until after my surgery. The stages are based on the size of the tumor and how far into my lymph nodes it has spread. As of right now, my tumor is 4 cm and one lymph node was biopsied and tested positive. The obvious next question, when is the surgery!?! I'm not sure. I have two more appointments, the last one being on the 20th. The surgery will be scheduled after this date. My Doctor says it will be the end of the month or even early next month. I will let everyone know as soon as it has been scheduled. Trust me, it's as frustrating as it sounds.


Well, that is the first step in this whole ordeal. The next step is chemo and possibly radiation. We are taking this one step at a time, they don't want to overwhelm me and be responsible for my head exploiting. I'll give you what I know. Today I just had an appointment with a nurse navigator (sorta like a nurse/social worker). She informed me I will be on TAC chemo, which consists of the three drugs, Cytoxan, Adriamysin, and Taxotere. I will be on 6 cycles, about three months. That's about all I know. Now the possibly of radiation, this all depends on the size of my tumor and how far in my lymph nodes it is. Basically if the tumor is over 5 cm and/or 3 + lymph nodes test positive I will need it. I won't find this out until everything is removed measured and tested (exhale).


Okay, I think, in a nut shell, that is everything. I know dry and boring, but now we are all on the same page. Thank you everyone for the kind wishes and prayers. It's very nice to know I have so many friends and family looking out for me. I will try to update this as soon as I get anything new. Most likely it will be once a week. I will try to keep this going throughout chemo, as well. Thank you again, I can't explain how good it feels to know how much everyone cares. Love you all!