Dianna Toy Dianna T

This all started when I found a lump back in June while taking a shower. It was on the outer left side of my left breast close to my ribs. I immediately called my GYN and set up an appointment. She ordered a diagnostic mammogram after telling me it felt a lot like a benign cyst but we have to get it checked out. I had only had one mammogram before in 2018 and a breast ultrasound in 2019. All were normal. After the mammogram, I laid there waiting for the Dr to come in and finish up the ultrasound. She took a good long look and after I sat up, she said to me, "I’m very concerned." I’m very concerned are not the words you want to hear from your Dr. She proceeded to tell me I needed to have a biopsy of this lump and adjacent lymph node. I asked her if she thought it was cancer.  She said yes. I asked her if she thought she could be wrong and she said no, I don’t think I’m wrong. Devastated, I tried to take in everything that was told to me but it was too surreal. This wasn’t happening. A few days later, my mom came with me to the biopsy and I’m so glad she did. It went smoothly and I went home to recover. I got the phone call 2 days later and got the news that I have the most common breast cancer. Ok. Common, caught early, has not spread to my lymph nodes, great prognosis! Those are all good things if you have to have cancer. We can do this! The following weeks were a whirlwind of education, setting up appointments, and trying to get into MDAnderson. We knew MD Anderson was the best possible place for cancer treatment from my Dad’s experiences with cancer and surgery and from John’s dad’s pancreatic cancer treatment. We were determined to get in there to at least just talk to a Dr…I did get in and now I’m being treated there…

I’m so grateful for all the love and support from everyone….I keep saying there’s no doubt in my mind about beating this, we just gotta get through it…