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24 years after an initial journey with breast cancer, I am entering a new journey with an unrelated breast cancer, diagnosis Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, grade 3, likely stage 1, triple negative. Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow, 9/26/16.
I feel very fortunate that this cancer was found during evaluation of a different concern (turned out to be nothing) initiated by my Dermatologist as it was not seen on my yearly mid-July routine 3D mammogram. As my cancer is in the same breast as 24 years ago, I will be having a mastectomy and have chosen to have reconstruction. I am in the process of meeting with several Medical Oncologists to determine which person I would like to be part of my treatment team as it is appearing that some form of chemotherapy will be part of my treatment journey. I am feeling very confident about the surgeons I have chosen for my initial surgery, Breast Surgeon Ingrid Lizarraga and Reconstruction Surgeon Jerrod Keith.
I am setting of this Caring Bridge Web Site in hopes of making the process of communicating easier with those who are part of my very extensive support network. This will help me keep information about this journey in an area that is easily accessed for me as well as my "Village of Support". I will not be able to fully define what kinds of support I may need until the process of treatment begins. However, I am a very social person, so will likely want visitors or walking buddies. I fully understand the serious nature of what I am facing, but also anticipate exercising my pretty darn good sense of humor throughout my treatment process. I firmly believe that a positive focus and a sense of humor really helps recovery. I also and tapping into the Healing Touch Community for assistance with a positive recovery process.
Of course I don't just define myself through my experience with cancer. It is a very significant bump in my road of life, but my life revolves much more through the pursuits I enjoy in retirement—the new friends I have made through exercise pursuits over the last 8 or so years at Performance Health & Fitness, staying connected with my former community of professional work buddies, enjoying Iowa Hawkeye sporting events and my Green Bay Packers (I grew up in WI—is there any other pro-football team?), enjoying reading great books with my book club members, developing new recipes to support my love of cooking, hobbies galore, and much more. My life is very full of positives. My wonderful life with John and feeling so wonderful that I have a partner in life who is my best friend. Sharing my joys and occasional bumps of life with those who mean so much to me—my wonderful family, great friends (many of whom are family to me), the community of women I have gotten to know through my Bosom Buddies family of sisters for 24 years and the cancer survivor yoga community I have enjoyed for 9 years. Edit Keywords for this CarePages website
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