May 17, 2022 (My 9 year wedding anniversary)
Today, I spoke with a breast surgeon named Tricia Kelly from a competing hospital called St Lukes. I have breast cancer on my right side and Lobular Carcinoma in Situ on the left which is not cancer but means I have an increased risk of having cancer. Dr Kelly told me she felt the left side of my breast also had some suspicious findings called asymmetrical dense breast tissue that she wanted to do more tests on. Which is scary. She also let me know they got a sample from my biopsy and were doing their own staining to confirm what type of cancer it is because it has both lobular and ductal features in histology. It won’t change the prognosis or treatment but it would clarify what to look for. She said her radiologist suggested another biopsy and an MRI. She told me that even if I wanted a Double Mastectomy, she would want the MRI to see if lymph nodes on the left side might be involved. They could biopsy the breast tissue after removal but taking samples of lymph nodes wasn’t easy or good to do unless it is suspicious. They scheduled me for an MRI and it’s not until May 26th. She said after that they can schedule surgery if their oncologist doesn’t want to do chemo before surgery but she said because they also think it is staged at 1a she thinks the oncologist will agree with surgery first.
Then, I spoke with LVHN again and asked if they wanted to do a biopsy or an MRI on the left side and they said the care team reviewed the lab report, tissue and mammograms but decided an mri was unnecessary. She told me to ask the breast surgeon, she also let me know they normally like to do breast MRIs about 5 days after your period and if they waited to do that for me, the timeline would be longer than they like which I absolutely with.
So my choice is to get it over with ASAP or get additional testing. I’m not sure where to go from here but hopefully the Surgeon Lori Alfonse from LVHN can help me figure it out.
A good childhood friend set up a beautifully written and thoughtful go fund me for my medical expenses. I sat in my hall way after I dropped off Alistair at preschool and cried a little. I’m trying to figure out how we’ll pay for all of this without help but it seems so overwhelming. I have a closing coming up soon and I’m excited to bring in a little income but I’m afraid of not working for a few months. Medical bills are piling up and though I try not to think about it, I know Charles is worried and that makes me sad because he has enough to worry about.
To keep my mind off of everything, I worked on setting up an email and you tube channel so I can begin to share my story and recovery in an effort to help anyone else going through this. I did some kickboxing and tried to think of a way to do it low impact and without my arms. I want to find a way to maintain my muscle after surgery. I need something else to focus on. So I thought about how I should do workouts as I recover and do a day after video to tell people how it might feel or what ways to modify it if they are sore and prevent hurting themselves after recovery. It made me feel good and I moved on with my day.
