My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer on August 24, 2017. I remember that day because it’s my parents’ wedding anniversary. It was a Thursday, I was off work, and eating lunch at one of my favorite restaurants (Soup & Taco) with my sister, Kasey. My mom called us and said she received a call from the breast imaging center saying the radiologist would like to talk to her and she needed to come in. We all knew it wasn’t good. She told us to stay out and enjoy our day, but yeah right, how were we supposed to do that? We left the restaurant immediately and went home.
My Aunt Rhonda had passed of breast cancer in January of 2016. Since my aunt’s diagnosis in 2004 my mom had been diligent about getting mammograms. When she was told she had dense breasts (aka lumpy, bumpy) she was advised to get breast MRIs to better visualize the tissue. She staggered mammograms and breast MRIs every six months. When 3D mammograms came out, she made sure to start getting those. Her most recent breast MRI showed micro-calcifications in each breast. Since micro-calcifications can be a sign of early breast cancer, it warranted multiple biopsies of each breast. Since the areas were so small, the biopsies were done under MRI guidance. The phone call she received was to let her know the results of the biopsies, which had been done a couple weeks ago. In between, our family went to the beach, and mom had debated whether she should go. I told her nothing had shown up on her 3D mammogram six months earlier, so she should be totally fine to go on vacation.
Kasey and I met mom at home, and dad came home early from work to go with us. The ride there was awful. We were stressed, anxious, and overall really sad. Kasey and I cried off and on, but mom stayed strong the whole ride. When we got to the imaging center we were taken to a “bad news room”. I remember there was a framed picture of an hour glass on the wall and I remember thinking how appropriate. I felt like we were waiting in there forever.
The radiologist finally came in and gave us the news. The biopsies showed cancer in the breast, but it was considered stage 0. What mom had was ductal carcinoma in situ or DCIS. This meant the cancer was located in the milk duct, and in situ meant it was contained and not invasive. This was all good news, as far as cancer goes, but I couldn’t help but think this was the beginning of the end.
It took me weeks, if not months, to come to terms with my mom’s diagnosis. I remember sitting in the recliner in the den at my parents’ house just sobbing. My dad looked at me one day and said, “You have to stop. You are killing me.” I was able to text my friends to let them know about mom, but it took me almost a month to tell my coworkers what was happening. It was just so difficult to say the words, “My mom has cancer.”
My mom, on the other hand, took everything in stride. She got a planner to keep track of her many appointments and got to work. Because her cancer was caught so early, she had plenty of time to decide what she wanted to do. She met with an oncologist and was given the option to have a lumpectomy, meaning the cancerous portion of the breast is removed along with a little surrounding tissue, or a mastectomy, meaning the entire breast is removed. If she chose a lumpectomy she would also have to have radiation therapy after her surgery. She then met with two breast surgeons at different health care facilities. She chose the surgeon she felt most comfortable with, and she chose to have a double mastectomy, meaning both breasts would be removed entirely. She chose that because she didn’t want to keep having mammograms and MRIs; she wanted to reduce the chance of her breast cancer recurring as much as possible. She also chose to have reconstruction done. There are several options for breast reconstruction, but the plastic surgeon recommended breast implants as mom’s best option. Immediately following mom’s double mastectomy, a plastic surgeon came in and placed tissue expanders in her chest. Expanders are basically like empty breast implants. They have a metal port on them, and they are filled with saline every few weeks, causing them to expand and the tissue to stretch to make room for the breast implant. Mom’s surgery took about 8 hours. It took about 3.5 for her double mastectomy and a little over 4 hours for the plastic surgeon to do microsurgery (connecting blood vessels) and place the tissue expanders under her pectoral (chest) muscles. Mom stayed in the hospital overnight and was discharged the next afternoon.
BeST,
Brittany
To be continued in Part II
Comments
Post a Comment