Amber Rodriguez Amber's Cheerleaders

After returning home from a few days in Minnesota for work in the middle of October 2016, I was sitting on the couch and had brushed my hand over my left breast and felt a lump that I didn't remember being there before. I checked my right one and realized there wasn't one in my right breast. After contacting my ob/gyn and going through a quick exam we decided to wait a few weeks to see if it got smaller or went away. Due to my age and no knowledge of having a history of breast cancer, my provider thought it might be a cyst. As we grew closer to Thanksgiving the lump wasn't going away so I scheduled an ultrasound for the middle of December where they found two suspicious masses and noticed that one of my lymph nodes was also swollen. They decided it was best to do a biopsy of all three areas on January 4th, and on January 6th we learned that the mass I could feel and my one lymph node was in fact positive for invasive ductal carcinoma breast cancer. 


On January 11th Nick and I met with my team of oncologists at University of Colorado Anshutz Medical Campus to go over additional information and my treatment plan. During this time we learned that I am between a stage 2 and stage 3 due to the fact that the cancer had spread from the ducts and gone into one of my lymph nodes. My team of oncologists also informed us that due to my age and the spreading of the cancer we would be attacking this cancer very aggressively which meant chemotherapy, mastectomy and radiation. We still had some additional tests to run on me to determine which course of chemo and drugs I would be receiving as well as to make sure the cancer hadn't spread anywhere else that they haven't tested yet. However, the treatment plan is fairly clear and chemo will be starting January 26th and I will be receiving chemo every three weeks for approximately four months. We will then move on to the surgery and radiation. 


The great news is that this is a very common form of breast cancer and is totally beatable and I plan to kick it's ass! The support from our friends and family through this has been amazing and more than I could've ever asked for or imagined. Mine and Nick's jobs are also being extremely flexible and supportive through this process which is a huge relief. The road to beating this and becoming cancer free is very long and to be able to keep everyone updated on progress we will be updating this Caring Bridge throughout it all; whenever we can. It will most likely be me updating this site but on occasion you will see a few others in there; I have some amazing cheerleaders in my life.  Thank you to everyone who is here on this site and I appreciate the support, positive thoughts and prayers more than you all will ever know. Continue to check back over the next year for all the updates or to post a message.