Ashley Valdez

Hey y'all! Welcome to our CaringBridge site! We've created it to keep friends and family updated on all of the craziness. We appreciate your support, words of hope and encouragement, it really means a lot. 

So, when Luis and I were back in Iowa for Christmas I randomly noticed a lump in my breast, I pointed it out to my Mom and Luis and we all figured it was probably nothing to worry about. I had a doctors appointment in a couple weeks anyway, so I would get it checked out then. After my appointment my doctor felt pretty confident it was nothing since I'm so young and have no family history of breast cancer. She figured better safe than sorry and sent me to get an Ultrasound...shout out to my favorite doctor, Dr. Jennifer Baur! 

Unfortunately, the doctor who reviewed my Ultrasound thought it would be best to look a little deeper and get a biopsy, and sent me to a wonderful surgeon, Dr. Angie Sassard. When I met with Dr. Sassard she told me there was no need to biopsy because she was VERY certain that it was just a Fibroadenoma (Benign breast tumor that is pretty common in young women). That being said she still wanted to remove the mass because it could cause problems down the road, and they would send it to pathology just to double check that all was good!

On April 25th, I had my lumpectomy and all went well. Recovery was super easy and I only had to take 3 of my 30 pain pills! Woot Woot (Also...why on Earth do they give you 30 pain pills...that's a tad absurd) 
 
March 2nd, I went back to Dr. Sassard for my post op appointment to get my stitches removed and thats when she told me, it was Breast Cancer. She and all of my other doctors were COMPLETELY shocked when they got the pathology results back because they didn't think for a second thats what it was. But luckily they have hooked me up with the "Dream Team" and were all doing alright! 

I'll try to post as many journals as I can, updating everyone on my appointments and everything as it happens along with my calendar ... will be sure to share some fun pictures too! :)