The Big C

I was diagnosed with breast cancer 10 days ago, which is just 10 days after my doctor found a breast lump during my annual exam on August 20th. This all seems to have happened at warp speed. She sent me to the Breast Health Center at the premier hospital here in St. Louis on the 24th. I was there for four hours and had a diagnostic mammogram, ultrasound, and, ultimately, a core needle biopsy. The fact that they kept using the word 'suspicious' clued me in that I might not hear the usual results of a benign condition that I've gotten in all previous 'scares'. In fact, I received my diagnosis on the 26th: invasive ductal carcinoma. It sounds pretty scary, doesn't it? However, it doesn't mean that we have a case of the invasion of the body snatchers.

I met with a surgeon on the 30th. She ordered an MRI for the 2nd, and I got those results last Friday. The MRI results confirmed what we thought we knew about the tumor from my ultrasound. They also indicated that there are no other cancerous growths in either breast. All pretty amazingly quick.

At this point things are looking pretty good -- if you discount the one big negative -- the fact that I have cancer in the first place! It seems we caught it fairly early and the cells are low grade. For those who are uninitiated in the realm of grade, my cancer is grade 1 out of 3. That means that the cancer is slow growing and the cells look very much like regular milk duct lining cells. However, they were found outside the duct where the cells originated, and now exist in the fatty part of the breast where there shouldn't be any duct cells. Hence the word invasive. The low grade also indicates that the cancer is not aggressive at this point.

What does this all mean to me? With any luck, I will have a lumpectomy within the next couple of weeks. Then it's likely that I will undergo radiation therapy. Whether or not I have to undergo chemotherapy will be determined by a closer examination of the tumor and the sentinel lymph node. If the cancer has: a) not spread to the closest, or sentinel lymph node, and b) has been found to be fed by estrogen and c) is indeed stage 1 or 2, then the pathologists are able to look at 16 specific genes within the tissue that will help determine whether I am at a greater or lesser risk of developing another tumor. If I'm at low risk, no chemo. If, I'm at high risk, chemo. Needless to say, I'm hoping for the low risk option.

I'm coping remarkably well -- at least at the moment! It's not totally unexpected given the fact that my mother had breast cancer when she was younger than I am now. She had a radical mastectomy and lived another 37 years! Ellen, my first cousin on my father's side, had it 12 years ago and is now doing fine.  My paternal grandmother developed it in her late 70's. She died from it the day before she would have turned 79.

Now of course, it's Labor Day weekend. So I have to wait until Tuesday before I will be able to connect with the doctor's office and schedule the surgery. It's not that I'm so keen to have surgery, but waiting for things to happen is more challenging than moving forward. However, my mantra has been "one step at a time", and that has been working for me so far.  Tune in again for future updates.