5 Years Later

Five years ago, I lay in a hospital bed peering down at my newly flattened chest.  Quite a shock.  I had to relearn my body.  When I looked down, I didn't see anything.  Just my shoes, quite a change from my triple D view.

Five Years ago today Dr. West removed both of my girls and the very last few remaining cancer cells that had invaded my body.  It's Officially the day I was declared, "Cancer Free".  

It was a large lump (baseball-sized) in my left breast.  "Mastitis" they kept telling me.  I had an 8 month old baby and I had stopped breast feeding.  How could that be?  When my OB saw it, his chin literally dropped to the floor and the color drained from his face.  He was on the phone with the surgeon within minutes.  

The surgeon took one look at me and said, "It's cancer."  I get sick just thinking about it.

After hearing the diagnosis my family sat around my living room in a cancer coma.  I told my brother to give it to me straight.  I wanted to hear the truth.  What was I looking at?  How long did I have?  He went into the office and came back several minutes later with tears in his eyes.  I had a 28% chance of being here in 5 years.  

You see I had been diagnosed with one of the worst breeds of cancer out there.  Called Inflammatory Breast Cancer it is known to be quite aggressive.  My outlook was grim.

My younger sister had been diagnosed just two years before.  I remember her surgeon telling the family how lucky she was to have Lobular Breast Cancer.  That type stays in the breast.  She was also Estrogen positive which meant she had drugs available to her after treatment to ward off the cancer.

Me on the other hand, was not so lucky, according to the internet.  That was a Thursday night.  I have to say, it was the worst weekend of my life.  Not knowing is the worst.  Not having a plan to execute.

On Monday I met with the Oncologist.  Well, my three sisters, my two sister-in-laws, my husband, and my niece met with her.  Don't do cancer alone.  Dr. Tetef told us that although I was not Estrogen or Progesterone positive, I was HR-2 positive.  Just 5 months before this diagnosis, coupled with my type of cancer, was a death sentence.  However, there was a new drug on the scene.  Herceptin.  They called it the "Penicillin of cancer".

To be continued....