I got an email from someone saying that this blog wasn't clear on where I was in my diagnosis. I realized that they were right! Okay, so brief synopsis:
December 22 2009: Yearly checkup with breast exam
January 12: Dana realizes left breast feels . . .thicker than right, no lump or bump, just thicker
January 14: Primary Care Physician (who Dana just saw less than three weeks before) acknowledges that the left breast feels more fibrous than the other.
January 15: Mammogram, slight area of calcification, sonogram shows some cysts, no biggy
January 16: See Breast Expert, who orders core biopsy
January 23rd: Breast core Biopsy, that sucked.
January 27th: Doctor calls me and tells me that I am positive for a very highly aggressive invasive ducal carcinoma (IDC). Oncologist told me later that the cancer is growing so rapidly, it makes sense why the doctor didn't feel it three weeks before and now it is bigger than a golf ball.
February 2: Got news that it isn't in my bones or lungs or liver, but it has already moved to my lymph nodes. But that is okay! Still fixable!
So what now? Since my tumor is ginormous and spread out and weird like in the pic above, I will be undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which means chemo BEFORE surgery. So six months of chemo will began as soon as I my eggs have been aspirated (more on that later), in about a week and a half.
Approximately 15-20 percent of breast cancer cells produce an excess amount of the HER2 growth protein on their surface, which makes the cancer more aggressive. I have excess of this protein, which makes me eligible for a clinical trial, where I will be testing some cutting edge stuff!
So hopefully that gives you an idea of where I am. I still don't know what "stage" I am in, since that is dependent on the amount of cancer in the lymph nodes. But I am definitely not Stage IV, since it is no where else in my body! Yay!
Mom is coming on the 8th! I can't wait!
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