My New Reality

There are many words that you could use to describe me but I would have never thought, at 33 years old, cancer patient would be one of those terms but on May 17, 2012 that all changed.

Back in March, I found a small lump in my left breast, after seeing my OBGYN and having an FNA (fine needle aspiration) he wasn’t too concerned.  I have no family history of breast cancer and I’m young (well in terms of breast cancer diagnosis anyway, lol) so he decided to follow up in a month.  A month later, the lump was still there so my doctor thought it would be good to have a mammogram, just to be on the safe side.  Within 45 minutes of finishing my mammogram they had scheduled me an appointment, for the next morning, with Dr. Habal, a surgical oncologist. Dr Habal performed a core needle biopsy on both my breast and a lymph node. We returned two days later to hear the diagnosis … cancer.

What we know … I have been diagnosed with Invasive Ductal Breast Cancer, the most common form, which has moved into my lymph nodes. The cancer is ER and PR negative but Her2 positive. The cancer is not triple negative, which is very good news. I will do chemo, followed by surgery, then radiation. My chemo cocktail will be “TCH” (taxotere, carboplatin, and herceptin).  There will be 6 chemo treatments, once every 3 weeks and I will continue with the herceptin for 1 year after I finish the chemo. The good thing about the herceptin … no side effects!

I have a CT scan scheduled for later this week and a bone scan for early June to determine if the cancer has spread past my lymph nodes. I will know more about when Dr. White, my oncologist, plans to start chemo next week.

I’ve been wanting to start blogging for some time but didn’t really know what I would write about, this wasn’t on my list of possible topic but it’s the path I find myself on right now.  I hope this blog will allow me to document and share this journey with my family and friends.