My stupid effing... cancer

April 1, 2010

I don't want to post status updates, but would like to be able to update my family and friends on my situation and treatment.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer on March 25, 2010. My sister Angela came to Cleveland to accompany me to my appointment on March 30 with my breast surgeon, Dr. Vaidya (pr. Whydea). Dr. Vaidya is absolutely wonderful. She explained that it is grade 3, invasive ductal carcinoma. The tumor is 4 cm and too large for a lumpectomy at this time. The hope is, to start chemotherapy to shrink it, in order to have a lumpectomy after 6 months of chemotherapy. At the start of treatment, if it has not responded to the chemo after the first 2 treatments, a mastectomy will be performed. I will have genetic testing done to determine if I test positive for a gene mutation, in that case, I will have a double mastectomy right away. On March 30th after my consultation with my surgeon, she performed a fine needle aspiration on my lymph nodes. The results came back inconclusive, therefore I am having outpatient surgery tomorrow to have a Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy. I will have general anesthesia (thank goodness, because I am the biggest baby and really really hate medical procedures of any kind. how I am able to donate blood every 56 days is a mystery to me.) Anyway, a blue dye will be used, I heard I will be peeing blue afterwards! Ha!

So, I'll have another outpatient surgery on April 12 to place the port. My Dad is coming to Cleveland on April 15 to come with me to my first chemotherapy treatment on April 16. It will be a five hour treatment, I'm looking forward to visiting and telling jokes and poking my Dad, "wake up!" during our five hours together. I'm very happy he is able to come and be with me. Its kind of scary, but at the same time, I'm simply going to listen to my wonderful doctors and have a positive attitude and know that millions of women are going through this. I'm in the absolutely best place I can be, being seen at the Cleveland Clinic, and I have every confidence this is just a bump in the road.

In the meantime, before I lose my hair, I'm going to make the most of it by getting some crazy, cool haircuts before I lose it. My cat always gets her "summer haircut", so this year I am joining her! I really need to keep the humor, that's going to help me get through the tough times. I know its going to be hard and I may not feel good some days, but guess what? They know what it is, how to treat it and they do this every day. So there.

Love to all of you and I'll keep you updated.
Terri