Keep me company as I travel thru my journey facing breast cancer again.

Why would anyone want to read about someone else's problem when you have plenty of your own? Maybe one day a loved one, a friend, or you will be diagnosed with breast cancer. My blog might offer insite into cancer resources, thoughts, questions to ask, or guidance in helping you deal with this disease. These are my experiences and suggestions. Every breast cancer is different. If you are touched by breast cancer, be sure to consult your Dr. for direction in treatment.

I equate my blog to the emergency evacuation instruction the flight attendants do before you take off on an airplane. Nobody pays attention to them but when your plane is about to crash you think, "sh*t, why didn't I pay more attention to them? Which color cord do I pull first again?" We have so many things going on in our lives that one more thing to dwell on that doesn't apply to us right now may not be important but when it does, we wish we would have paid attention.

My blog is something you might read a couple times or maybe follow. Hopefully you gain some knowledge about breast cancer, in particular, Invasive Lobular Carcinoma (ILC). It is the 2nd most common type of invasive breast cancer however it only accounts for approx. 10% of all invasive breast cancers. It is the silent breast cancer. It is generally not detected with a mammo but rather an ultrasound. Invasive Lobular Carcinoma (ILC) is what I have been diagnosed with. My suggestion to every woman who is of mammo age insist on an ultrasound with your mammos.
UPDATE 3/2011
I have had my bilaterial mastectomy and I am recovering. ILC is a sneaky cancer as I said above. My various Dr.'s here and at UCSF confirmed the size of my tumor should be between 2.5cm-3.5cm with possibilty but not most likely, 7cm. After my surgery, my tumor was confirmed to be 11cm. My Dr.'s are very knowledgeable and are on top of things. This is simply the truth about ILC. I had mammos every 6 months, ultra sounds, and MRI's. With all of these, it was not picked up until 1/2011. The good news, if you can call it that, only 1 sentinel node out of 2 has micromastic findings and 5 aux. nodes were negative.

Be sure to start my adventure from the blog history on the right. I have tried to bold points to make it easier to extract the important information. If there is anything you get out of this blog, refer to my Dr.'s listed below if you know someone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer in the East Bay. These Dr.'s; Dr. Gottlieb, Dr. Wotowic, and Dr. Sherman are my 3 musketeers....all for 1 and 1 for all!

February 10, 2011

The beginning of a cancer free future for me-March 10, 2011

The date has been set for my double mastectomy, March 10. 

The surgery will begin at 11:00am. It will take close to 6 hours between the bi-lateral mastectomy and the reconstruction surgery. This will be 1 of a few more surgeries that are ahead of me until I'm whole again. If all goes well and the couple tests I have left come up negative, then this should be the start of a cancer free future for me. Yea!!!
Will my life change? I think it will. I will start to take better care of myself. Don't think I'm going to be doing any triathlons with Frank or my daughter, cause I'm not. For one, there are sharks in the Bay, there are no sharks in the local pool (other then a few dads). Secondly, I hate running. My eating habits are already very good but they could get better. I have already started dropping my alcohol intake...not that I'm a boozer to begin with! Wine on the weekends only and limited at that, such a bummer!
We are heading to UCSF in the next couple weeks for a 2nd opinion and to ask more questions, in particular what is it about me that has triggered this twice in 3 years? If we knew that answer we wouldn't have breast cancer in the world now would we?
So here we go....
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