I found a lump

I found a lump.  It’s in my left breast on the armpit side.  I don’t remember the exact day I found it but it was in late February 2018.  It was kind of weird how I found it.  I had some pain in my left armpit so I was feeling around trying to figure what was causing it.  That’s when I felt the lump.  

I’d had a couple lumps before over the past 10 years.  I even had an ultrasound for one, and it turned out to be nothing.  The midwife in my gyno office said I probably had fibrocystic tissue.  I already knew I had dense breasts.  When I had my very first mammogram about a week after I turned 40, they called me back in for more images because of the dense tissue.  At the time, I didn’t know that dense breasts increase your chances for breast cancer. 

After finding the lump, I made an appointment with my doctor.  The appointment was March 2.  At that appointment, she said I needed to get a diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound at St. Joe’s Imaging Center.  That was scheduled for the next week, on March 6.  Andy went with me that day and I’m so glad he did.  I went into that appointment with a pretty good attitude.  We even talked about that the worst they could tell me was that I needed a biopsy.  The ultrasound showed a suspicious mass in my armpit lymph node area, as well as the breast. Even though we’d talked about me possibly needing a biopsy, I still had a hard time hearing the radiologist say it.  The lymph nodes really scared me.  

The soonest they had an open biopsy appointment was March 27.... 3 weeks away.  And it still had to go through the proper channels- radiology report back to my doctor, the doctor ordering the biopsy, waiting for the scheduling department to call me. I was so frustrated!  I had a little extra help and intervention by a couple people to get the biopsy fast-tracked.  We were able to get the appointment scheduled for March 14... four days before my 43rd birthday.  Andy came with me to the appointment but he couldn’t come in the biopsy room with me.  They numbed me up and took several samples from each location.  They also insterted these metal clips (markers) to show where the tumors were.  After that, they did a gentle mammogram to make sure the clips were in the right spots.  Then they wrapped me up, ice packs and all, and I went on my way.  We did get to talk with the radiologist before we left.  He didn’t come out and say it was cancer, but he didn’t really need to.  He said I’d be having surgery at some point to remove the lumps.  He said the pathology report usually takes 3-5 days to come back.  Right after this, we started the process of getting an appointment with a surgeon, Dr. Cass Kennedy.  The appointment was for March 20 at 4:40pm.

I didn’t expect to hear anything before the weekend (biopsy was on a Wednesday) and I really didn’t want to hear before my birthday (Sunday) anyway.  It wasn’t up to me though.  On Thursday afternoon, my doctors office called and said Dr Proudfoot wanted me to come in the next day, Friday at 9am.  She apparently had some preliminary results back.  At that point, I knew.  I think I knew during the ultrasound.  Andy and I went to the appointment on Friday morning. At first I was upset I had to wait overnight to know for sure, but now looking back, I’m kind of glad. It gave me the chance to prepare myself so when the doctor said it out loud, it wasn’t a shock.  On Friday, March 16, 2018, I found out I have breast cancer.