Linda Puchyr Linda's Lifeline

 A family of four girls in this day and age, an you might suspect one would have breast cancer. Sure enough, in 2013 my sister Nancy was the one, I thought about her everyday. Trying to help her if I could. She didn't deserve this, grateful they found it early, that she would be okay. Her strength prompted me to be more diligent as my own self exams and mammogram test.  Somehow deep down I was also thinking I had dodged the bullet that landed on her.My routine mammogram were clear until April 2016 one month past my schedule mammogram I felt something. No it couldn't be, everything was clear a year ago but I couldn't sleep.  A week later I decided to make a doctor's appointment, needed to have peace of mind - it had to be nothing, I would be OK. The doctor confirmed it was suspicious, mammogram and ultrasound were warranted. Scheduled the test for early the next week just to be sure. Needed to determine what the cells were. Cancer or not, spread or not. After the mammogram and ultrasound, they decided they needed to do a Biopsy. This procedure hurt-wish they had put me under. The Lidocaine did not work and they could not stop or give me anything more.   It took two hours, as they thought and all i wanted to do was sleep after. Then the hard part- the waiting 48-72 hours before I would hear something.  My diagnosis is triple positive, HER2/Neu, Grade 2 Stage III.I will have 64 weeks of chemo, which started May 18th, 2016. My course of treatment is:1st round of chemo - Adriamycin and Cyclophosphamide every two weeks x 4 = 8 weeks2nd round of chemo - Paclitaxel every week for 12 weeks = 12 weeksalso, Perjeta every 3 weeks x 4 (different day than the Paclitaxel)also, Herceptin every week x 52 weeks