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Many of you have heard this whole sordid tale by now, but I wanted to have an ‘official’ post here with all the details. And to catch up those of you who haven’t heard anything and just thought I've just been a total slacker lately and haven't been doing anything.

Right before our wedding on March 10, 2007, I found a lump in my right breast. After the honeymoon I had a bunch of tests, and on Thursday, April 12th, I was diagnosed with a type of breast cancer called Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. On April 18th I had a mastectomy. On May 17th I started chemo, which I should be finishing by October 12th.

Young women get more aggressive breast cancers, so my doctors said we would respond in kind and treat it as aggressively as possible. I chose to have a bilateral (both sides) mastectomy to prevent any future cancer in the other side.

After surgery, we found out that my cancer is Stage 2a, and Grade 3. The stage means how far the cancer has progressed, and it's a number between 1 and 4, with 4 being the most far advanced. Grade means how fast it grows, and can be between 1 and 3, with 3 being the fastest. During the operation, they removed three lymph nodes from under my arm, and checked them for cancer. If the cancer spreads, the lymph nodes are usually the first place it goes. I'm happy to report that my lymph nodes were cancer free!

My prognosis is good, and it looks like we caught it very early. Things will suck for a while, but in the end, they’ll be fine.

I was out of work for three weeks recovering from surgery. I’ve been working part time during chemo.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to all my friends, family, and sometimes even strangers (!) who have come forward and done sweet, amazing things, both big and small, to help me through this. Dan, Adam and I are so thankful for all your love and support - it has made a difficult time much easier to get through. Not to get all Bud-Light-commercial-ish, but WE LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

Now, here are the answers to some questions I’ve been getting a lot:

Where/when was the surgery? Jewish Hospital, Wednesday, April 18, 6:30am. I came home on Sunday, April 22.

Does this run in your family? The short answer is that I don’t really know. My maternal grandmother had a cyst or growth or something, but by the time it was discovered, she was already in the last stages of intestinal and cervical cancer, so they never tested the lump to see if it was cancerous or benign. She was in her 70's at the time. I don’t have any other relatives with breast cancer.

Reconstruction? In stages. Because you lose some skin during a mastectomy, the skin you have left has to be gradually stretched to accomodate implants. So when I had my surgery, they put in tissue expanders, which I got filled up a little bit at a time by my plastic surgeon. Now they're all the way filled up, and when I'm done with chemo, I'll have surgery to exchange the tissue expanders out for more permanent saline implants. It should be around the end of the year.

I saw your surgery pictures and you weren't as, uh, flat as I thought you would be. Did they leave some breast tissue?: No, but when the tissue expanders were put in, they already had some filler in them.

A Brief Timeline...

March 5ish? - found lump
March 10 - Got Married!!!
March 11-19 - honeymoon in Spain (pics here)!
March 27 - saw general practitioner who took my lump seriously and immediately referred me for further tests (thank you, Dr. Box!)
April 12 - DIAGNOSIS
April 18 - bilateral mastectomy & sentinel node dissection (3 nodes removed); tissue expander placement
April 19 - CT scan & bone scan both cancer free; no cancer in lymph nodes!
May 17 - CHEMOTHERAPY, Round 1: Adriamycin & Cytoxin - DONE!
July 27 - CHEMO, Round 2: Taxol & Herceptin, 12 weekly treatments
Oct 12 - LAST CHEMO! Then Herceptin continues every three weeks for a year, and Tamoxifen starts up for 5 years.

Here are some pictures documenting what I have looked like since after surgery, and through the stages of reconstruction. They're not pictures of me actually having surgery, but I still wouldn't recommend them for the queasy.
I am making these pictures available online because, before I had surgery, it helped me a lot to see pictures of other people's results, so I'd have an idea of what to expect. Since posting them, I've heard from lots of people who appreciated seeing them and that it seemed less scary than they thought. So I'm leaving them up!

Cavalcade of Cancer Characters:
Dr. Cervera, Oncologist
Dr. Stewart, Surgeon
Dr. Corbett, Plastic Surgeon
Dr. Box, General Practitioner

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Very Important People:


Dan, (almost) Esquire, husband extraordinaire, who managed to
finish law school in spite of me being diagnosed, like, a month
before the end of it, and who takes care of me as if I'm an itsy
bitsy baby, when I need it, who washed my hair for me when I
couldn't do it myself, who puts my laptop away when I fall asleep
with it on me, who makes me healthy food, who takes care of
business, who tells me I'm beautiful bald, and who I love very much.

Adam, the kiddo, going into 6th grade, who managed to make the honor roll and get the Best 5th Grade Boy Award even though his mom had stupid crappy cancer, and who's concerned with me feeling well enough to take him to Mr. Gattiland

Pat, the exact opposite of what you always hear about mothers-in-law, who steps up to the plate whenever we even think about needing help, and who hates it when I put her photo on the internet, but I CAN'T HELP IT

My Dad Mike and Stepmom Barbara, who learned how to make veggie burgers and other healthy scrumptious foods, which they serve at exclusive and fabulous cookouts, to which, I'm sorry, but you're not invited

Aunt LaVerne, who sends me love and goodies from Maryland

My precious Niece Indigo!

My precious Nephew JoJo!

My Big Ol' Family

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Very Important Pets:

Willy

Jiffy

Buster

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Hairstory:

BATC (Before All This Crap)

Just Before Surgery

Beginning of Chemo

Trouble's A-Brewin'

And It's Gone, Baby, Gone!

Friends (19):

Friend of (20):