My name is Rebecca Thompson and I am 38 yrs old. I am married and have an 8yr old daughter and a 6yr old son. I was diagnosed with breast cancer on May 20, 2009. I have fought the fight and have won this race. I have overcome breast cancer by the grace of God and through His power! His tender mercies are new to me each and every morning!
I realized many of you are just now finding out about what's been happening the last couple of months. Let me explain.
The Wednesday before Easter I felt a lump very close to my sternum bone. At that time I was bummed because I thought it was caused by too much caffeine and I'd have to give up Starbucks! I made an appointment with my primary care doc and she sent me to have a mammogram and ultrasound. When the doctors looked at the results they leaned toward my theory of caffeine and hormones, but to be on the safe side they sent my images to a doctor in Aurora, Co. She wasn't happy with the blood flow and ordered a biopsy on one tumor in my right breast and on the lymph node under the right armpit. My biopsies were done on May 19. Up to this point I had only told my pastor and praise and worship leaders. I really didn't think it was gonna show up positive for cancer. But as you know, May 20 I got the phonecall, and the diagnoses was cancer.
I won't go into details now of what that night and those nights following were like for me and Pat. I'm sure it's everything you can imagine and more.
From there we saw a couple of different oncologists until we found the right one for us. Lots of decisions to be made at this point as to how to treat, when to do surgery, etc. We decided to start with chemo every 3 weeks for 12 weeks. Then we will do surgery. Two more lumps were found in the same breast and they were biopsied postive as well. Since there are so many in the right side, we will do a masectomy on the right breast and remove the lymph nodes. The surgeon will not know how many of the lymph nodes will need to come out until she has me opened up. She will be able to detemine the stage of cancer then as well. It looks to be stage II at this point. There doesn't seem to be a need to do anything to the left side. So after the surgery we will rest for a month to recover and then continue with 12 more weeks of chemo. After that, we will do radiation treatments and then I will be an a pill called tamoxifen for 5 years.
I had some blood work done and it came back a bit weird so the oncologist ordered a bone scan. Thankfully the scan came back clear. (shew!)
The cancer is 94% estrogen fed. The oncologist used the terms "favorable cancer" to describe this type, meaning it is treatable. She explained that cancer can spread "seeds" throughout the body and we can't detect them until they are out of control. This is why it is very necessary to do the chemo treatments to kill any active cells that are hiding out somewhere.
I think I pretty much covered the details of what, when, where, and how. The only thing left is "WHY??!!" Well, I'm not sure of those answers now, but I know good will come out of this. God is true to His word and I am holding onto it with white knuckles!!!
Patients and caregivers love hearing from you; add a comment to show your support.
Help Rebecca Stay Connected to Family and Friends
A $25 donation to CaringBridge powers a site like Rebecca's for two weeks. Will you make a gift to help ensure that this site stays online for them and for you?
