Jerri Mapel

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.  My story starts back in February with a routine mammogram at Mosaic Life Care.  I got the call a few days after my mammogram that I needed to come back out for a 2nd mammogram,  I was a little irritated at first as I had been going to North KC for my mammograms over the last 4-5 years and had 3D mammogram the year before and had told Mosaic to get my records to compare, so I didn't think they had had enough time to even do that.  So, I told them to go check my records out from North KC.  Well, a few more days passed and I got my 2nd phone call saying they still needed to see me for another mammogram and possible a sonogram while I was there.  I am not sure why, but I was still irritated with them, but I went ahead and made the appointment and made plans to take time off to go. My 2nd mammogram came back negative and my sonogram showed I needed to have 2 biopsies done on my left breast.  Everything was scheduled very fast for me.  During the biopsy, I was awake, it was very odd feeling but I was all numb.  They talked me through everything at the hospital. The following week, I found at one spot was negative and the other cancer.  I was set up to meet with a general surgeon to discuss my options and find out what my cancer was.  I was diagnosed with  Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, hormonal driven and HER2+.  I then went to visit with the plastic surgeon to listen to my options with him. After listening to both doctors, I was convinced, I wanted to at least remove the breast with the cancer in it.  So, I think discussed what would that mean for m and my other breast in the means of later of matching, getting cancer etc.  It soon just became a no brainer to me that I needed to remove both breasts.  So, my path was set in motion for the 2 surgeons to find a date for the surgery to take place.  It all took place on April 4, 2019, my double mastectomy and the start of my reconstruction as the expanders were put in place. I'm not going to lie - this was one of the most painful surgeries I have EVER had and have EVER had to recover from.  I think mostly because I had to depend on other to help me so much and not being able to use my arms to push myself up.  But, I made it through this part!  I did 3 week out need a 2nd surgery on my right breast because it wasn't healing as well and needed some touch ups to get the skin to healing.  On to recovery from there to get chemo.