My First Mammogram

I had my first mammogram on October 12th and to honest with you I wasn't nervous at all. I thought it would be a short appointment that I could "check off" my health list and tell my mammogram tech, "see ya in a couple years". I am young and have no history of breast cancer in my family, so this is going to be a breeze..right?! 

I went right into the office that afternoon and the tech gave me a warm robe, she explained the procedure too me and said there is a chance you could get called back into the office as with your first mammogram, we don't have a base line to compare your results too. Sounded good to me.

5 minutes later, I was done, dressed, and on my way home. Easy peasy. 

A couple days later I got a call that I needed to come back into the office for a more in depth screening of my right breast and to be prepared for additional screening after the mammogram, if needed. So on October 26th I went in for an additional mammogram and was immediately told that the radiologist wanted me to go straight in for an ultra sound. 

All of a sudden, I got a huge rush of anxiety hitting my body and I felt like I was going to get sick. I laid on the table while they took extensive pictures of my right breast and arm pit. I have very limited information on breast cancer so I had no idea why they were concentrating so much on my arm pit. (later found out it was for my lymph nodes).

The radiologist came into the room to give me my results after the longest 30 minutes of my life. I was just sitting in the exam room.....ALONE....and uncertain of what would be next. He explained that they found a couple spots that looked abnormal on my right breast and lymph node and they were to schedule me for an ultrasound biopsy on the spots that looked abnormal. 
I was scheduled for my ultrasound biopsy on November 2 and I had no idea what to expect, but I was nervous! The Dr. came into the room and explained the procedure as I would be awake while they numbed my breast and arm pit and there were 2 spots on my breast and a couple on my lymph nodes that they wanted to sample. They took 3 samples in each spot, so a total of 9 samples and holy sh%* this was painful and uncomfortable. But now was the hardest part as I wait.......wait the whole weekend to see what direction my journey would take me. 

I just kept thinking.....

I am young.
I eat my vegetables.
I have young babies.
I workout all the time.
This can't be real. 
I will get through this.
I will.
Why....why me?????

On Monday, November 6 at 1:30 PST, my phone rang and I knew it was the nurse calling to give me the news. And my stomach sank...... I picked up the phone and quietly whispered......"Hello". She introduced herself as Rhonda, RN, and then she said it. 
"Jessica your results in your breast came back positive. You have breast cancer"
and to be honest........that is all I remember from the call. 
Thank goodness she emailed everything over to me so I could read and digest it all and have some facts when I made the dreaded phone call to Darren and my mom. 

So here are my results.....
I have Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. Invasive Ductal Carcinoma (IDC) is a form of breast cancer that originates in the milk ducts and invades into surrounding tissues. It is also referred to as "Infiltrating" which means the same as invasive. Invasive does not mean that the cancer has already spread outside the breast. 

Additional testing is pending that will give us more information. One is checking to see if the cancer is positive for estrogen and progesterone, which means the cancer cells are being fueled by these hormones. We expect to see a breast cancer be positive for estrogen and progesterone. I hope to have this results today or Wednesday at the latest. I'm also waiting on another test that is checking for a protein called HER-2/neu. Normally this protein works to regulate cell growth, however in some breast cancers (about 20% of all breast cancers or 1 in 5), something has gone wrong with it. This can lead to the rapid growth of cancer cells. Together these tests will tell us more about the make up of the cancer and the best way to treat it.
This is sooooo scary as figure out what treatment will look like for me. What we do know is I will need surgery and radiation and not sure about chemotherapy. I see my oncologist and surgeon on 11/21 for my mapping of treatment and on 11/15 I will meet with a genetic specialist to see if I’m a carrier. If I am a carrier, then my sisters, Scarlett, & Niece’s can get tested to see if they have the genetic gene. 

I know you all want to know what to do and all I want right now are prayers for me, my family, & for a speedy recovery.   

I’m ready to give it all I’ve got. I’m a fighter and I will beat this. I love each and everyone one of you. 

xo-J

Comments

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