My story started around the beginning of May when I was in the cities staying at my dads. I gone up for a week in mid March to see Emma and the girls during their spring break. The stay at home order came in while I was there, and because Emma works in a hospital, I decided to stay in case she contracted it from work.
I noticed a small lump with redness in my left breast around the beginning of May. It progressively got bigger over the next couple of weeks. When the main stay at home order was lifted I came back home to Morgan. I had initially planned on going in right when I got back, but hit a little hiccup when they cemented my driveway with my SUV still in the garage, so long story short I went in on June 3rd. My primary doctor decided right then that I should have a mammogram and ultrasound so she sent me off to New Ulm Medical Center. The mammogram showed the lump, but it didn't look cancerous on that. While doing the ultrasound they believed it was a cyst, so they did a needle biopsy to see if they could get fluid out. They didn't get much, but were still going to send it in.
I received a call from the Surgeons office the next day and they had scheduled an appointment for me on June 8th. At that time she was still certain it was just a cyst, but wanted to remove it since it had become somewhat painful. I was on board, and my surgery was scheduled for 10 days later on June 18th. Everything went well with the procedure.
I went back for the one week follow-up on June 25th thinking I'd just get the stitches out and be on my way. Little did I know that my sisters believed that I did indeed have cancer from what they could see and from a negative test result that I thought was good news, but really wasn't. So it was in the exam room that my surgeon broke the news to me that the mass that they had removed and tested was indeed cancerous. To say I was shocked was an understatement. I just didn't think it was cancer. I left there with a number of future appointments coming up, and a meeting with an oncologist. My poor 16 year old niece Molly had driven me to my appointment so I knew I couldn't break down.
I had a breast MRI, bone scan and CAT scan before meeting with the oncologist on July 2nd. Dr. Khanfar spent over an hour with us. My sister Sarah (a RN) took the day off to come down to New Ulm to be with me during my appointment. I'm so thankful she was there as my eyes glared over about 10-15 minutes in. I was a lot to take in all at one. I was diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer called Inflammatory Breast Cancer. This kind accounts for only 1-5% of all breast cancer in the US. It is an aggressive form of breast cancer which needs to be treated aggressively. The decision was made that I would begin chemotherapy on July 14th. I know to some that seemed like a while, but trust me it wasn't, I had a lot of other appointments to fill up those days. There was some concern that I had had headaches when I first noticed the lump so a brain MRI was ordered that day, as well as ultra sounds on my legs as the CT showed a blood clot in the lower pelvis; however I don't believe the was new given I have DVT in both legs.
My Iron was also low; welt was 11.3 which is actually high for me, but the Doctor wanted it higher, so I started another round of iron infusions on July 6th, lymph node biopsy on July 7th, iron infusion on July8th, and then the port placed on Friday July 10th up at Abbott. Luckily I was able to drive to Sarah's and she was able to drive me, and then drive my car to the cabin for the weekend.
Needless to say, its been a whirlwind of appointments and information overload! I am beyond thankful to my family for their love and support. From Tanya and Molly driving me to appointments, Sarah driving down to be with me for the oncology appointment, Emma driving down to get Megan as I wouldn't go to the cities, and for family time at Jason and Tanya's cabin. I have a long road ahead, but I'm prepared to fight this thing head on!
