You have more cancer.
Well here we go again. I was literally in the middle of creating a post talking about how waiting has been one of the hardest parts of this whole ordeal when my phone began to ring, and it was the doctor calling.
“Rachel, the results for your 2nd biopsy have come through… Same type of cancer… Make a change to your treatment plan… Full mastectomy……………!”
Wait…hold on.. Go back. I thought it was non-invasive and not aggressive? Why in the world would I need to have my ENTIRE breast removed for a non-invasive cancer that is not aggressive? Someone stop time. Hold on. Give me a minute to sit with this.
Meanwhile more snippets are coming through from the other side of the phone, “Non-invasive and not aggressive, however… (I am seriously starting hate the words HOWEVER and BUT)… However, it can become an aggressive form if left untreated… (but wait, I thought lumpectomy WAS treating it)… Have to operate under the assumption that since both biopsies were positive, the third microcalcification cluster will also be the same thing and that it may be widespread throughout the milk ducts in the breast…. Need to send the whole thing to pathology for testing… Biopsy the lymph node… Removal and reconstruction.. prognosis is still excellent…”
He told me that it is more important now than before to get the genetic testing done. He reconfirmed with me that we don’t have a history of breast cancer in either side of my family. He says that it would be rare and highly unlikely for me to be genetically predisposed for breast cancer, but I told him that I am feeling a bit like the poster child for “rare” and “highly unlikely” right now.
How did it come to this? It was supposed to be a simple surgery, maybe some radiation, then get on with living my normal life.
So, the new recommended treatment plan is to have a full mastectomy and reconstruction all in the same surgery, biopsy the lymph node to be sure nothing is there, still no chemo required and I believe this also negates the need for radiation, and then to take an estrogen blocking pill for the next 5 years to protect the healthy breast.
After we ended the conversation and I’d had some time to process, I began to think of whether I shouldn’t just ask them to go ahead and take both.
There are multiple reasons I am thinking of doing this:
1. I don’t want to spend the next half of my life always wondering if/when it will show up in the other breast, as the likelihood of that drops drastically with mastectomy.
2. I really don’t want to do the estrogen blockers that are likely put me in early menopause just to protect the healthy breast if I can just remove it too.
3. It makes sense to me to just do it all at once instead of risking having to do a second surgery later on when I will be older and recovery will be harder.
4. (And I realize this one is purely vanity) Who really wants to get older and have one breast sag to the knee and the other still be all perky? Either both should sag, or neither should sag. I really appreciate symmetry.
This has given me a lot to think on and make choices about. The very next step is to have blood drawn on Monday for the genetic testing, and we will see where we need to go from there.
Ladies. Please, I am BEGGING you. Go get your mammogram done. Just think, if I’d have waited until 45 (which is what the recommendation was until this year) this likely could have turned into an invasive more aggressive form of cancer. Yes, I am going to have to deal with one if not two mastectomies, but the threat to my life is so extremely low because it was caught so early on. Please, please, please get checked.