Had the Surgery, Will Be Starting Chemo

April 6, 2006

Hey Everyone,

I wrote a while back, but now I have had the surgery and the final

pathology is all in. I had a 4.9 cm tumor in the right breast (total

mastectomy) and five lymph nodes were involved. The tumor was ER/PR +,

but H?? negative. The onc is doing further testing to absolutely

confirm the latter.

I am 45, so I will be doing dose dense chemo, then on to radiation.

My husband works for NY Hospital, and one of his buddies was looking at

the path report, and said, " How did miss this? " . Well, as I

mentioned before, I didn't. Six months ago, I felt the lump and went in

for a mammogram and a sonogram, and nothing showed up. Had the tech,

and the radiologist actually palpated me (which they never did), I am

sure I would have been sent for a biopsy. I wasn't. Six months later, I

took my own self back to the doc, cause I knew something was going on.

I had no idea it was cancer. Thought it was fibrocystic breast

condition.

And here I am.

I am positive I will be cured, as I am a big healthy female, and my

tumor type responds well to therapy. My six year old son is looking

forward to the baldness as I will look like Lex Luther.

And when I am on the other side of the treatment mountain, I want to

spend a lot of time educating women as to the different kinds of breast

cancer symptoms. We all know, " look for the lump, get a mammogram,

etc. " , but I am a reasonably aware person, and I had no knowledge of

IBC, or Paget's. Women need to know more about the nitty-gritty

details.

Thanks for being here, all you fabulous survivors. Without this group,

I would have gone completely mental these last few weeks. I felt so

informed when I went to see the oncologist. Now all I have to do is

battle with the insurance company about " reasonable costs " , as my onc.

does not take insurance (the big muckity-mucks at NY Hospital usually

don't, as they don't have to, their patient base is plenty big without

it). And hints there would be gratefully received.

Take care, y'all,

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