Robyn Podany Team Podany

Welcome to our CaringBridge site. We've created it to keep friends and family updated. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement during this time New Year Resolution was easy..."Not to have Cancer"!


The story begins in a funny sort of way...It was December and I was trying every way to use up all the Flex spending funds left over before the end of the year. December was packed with appointments: Dental, check. Vision, check. New computer glasses, check. Annual physical, check. Last but not least...mammogram. Ugh. Least favorite thus the reason to put it off until the week before Christmas. When I got to the appointment and the tech (mammographer is what I call them!) asked if I wanted to "pay and extra $150 for a 3-D (Tomosynthesis) mammogram", it was a no-brainer! Yes! Spend those flex dollars! So done, and check. Whew. I actually managed to get my flex dollars (well, almost!) spent!  When the call came for me to return for an ultra-sound the following Monday, December 21, 2015 - I was not the least bit surprised as this has pretty much been my M.O. since I began getting mammograms 11 year ago.  Routine.. that is right up until the Radiologist came in the room to conduct the exam.  Hmmmm....THIS is a bit different, I thought to myself.  When I asked her if the black spot on the screen was what she was looking at....her answer was not only yes, but told me I was very fortunate that I had requested the 3-D exam as that was the only way it was detected! It had not shown up in my regular mammogram...and there was no lump. Wow. Wow. Wow. 

So before I go any further, let me take a moment to say to ALL of the beautiful women in my life.....GET A 3-D MAMMOGRAM!!!!!!!  Drink one less Latte' a week if you have to in order to pay for it but GET A 3-D MAMMOGRAM!!!! Please!  

The radiologist told me I would need to follow up with a needle biopsy (oh yeah, it is as fun as it sounds!) and wanted to conduct it the next day....you know, Christmas week.  I opted out and decided that New Years week would be a FAR better time to have it conducted.  December 29th I went in for the biopsy, which actually was kinda cool to watch.  The radiologist inserted a titanium clip inside the boob booger (such a nicer word than tumor!) so that it will be easy to locate in future tests.  Future tests? Really? Once we were done I was sent home with my ice pack and told we should hear something in 48 hours...New years eve. Perfect.  The results didn't take a full 48 hours and actually, I received the results during my sleep - when I heard clearly "the results will be positive, you will survive".  I told Greg when we woke up in the morning, that I didn't think we would be receiving good news, but that It was going to be alright.  That afternoon, 24 hours later, Nurse Libbie called as we were walking out the door to NC for the New Year.  Boom. Positive for Invasive Ductal Carcinoma breast cancer.  When asked if we had any questions, the only one that came up was "Can I still go to St John"???   

A week in St John was perfect medicine and what I considered my first round of "treatment"!  Quiet time in our friend Melody's sweet cottage, cool trade-wind breezes and time with wonderful friends.  Ahhhhh.... 

The roller coaster ride is now about to begin, and while it is not a ride we want to be on, our hope is that like most scary rides it will only last 60 seconds!! When it matters most.