Tests and treatment plans.

Mammograms, sonograms, EKG, PET scans, CT scans, blood work, genetic testing...so much investigating to come to this diagnosis: 174.9 Malignant neoplasm of breast (female), unspecified site, diagnosed Dec 10, 2014 (Active) Stage IIIC, T3, N3, M0, G3.

STAGE III??!! What? What about stage two...very treatable? Stage III, shit, that changes things...the only saving grace was "M0", no metastasis. Let's pump me full of chemo, get rid of the breast and the lymph nodes, zap me with some radiation and I'll be good as new...sort of.

I won't bore you with all the details and I don't mean to gloss over it, because it was no fun, but it had to be done, so I did it and not much of anything else, for quite a while.  I had LOTS of chemo, 16 rounds. I had a right modified radical mastectomy with axillary reverse mapping. I had a tissue expander put in place for future reconstruction. I had 30 rounds of radiation. And in January 2016, at my six month follow up, my doctors said.  Congratulations, you can say you are cancer free...

But I was skeptical. I knew there were two lymph nodes that were cancerous that could not be removed. I needed to know that the chemo and radiation did their job and obliterated those nasty little nodes...I asked for a PET scan. I was accommodated. The two spots were gone; good news! But there were two new spots, one on the base of my spine and one near my lung. The standard philosophy is to "watch" these spots. My doctor wanted to wait until June and do another PET scan. He said he was fairly certain that the spot at the base of my spine was arthritis and the one near my lung might be an
infection or inflammation...or cancer. I wanted a biopsy. I was not accommodated. It would be too
invasive and it's just a tiny spot. PLEASE! I have been so invaded thus far, what's a little more invasion? So my doctor and I agreed that rather than wait the 6 months for another PET scan I would have a CT scan in 6 weeks...ok, I can deal with that. The CT scan showed the same two little spots, no change, not bigger, not smaller, not gone. Biopsy, please?? No. We'll schedule a Pet scan in 6 weeks. Even if it is cancer the treatment would be an aromatase inhibitor talked daily...I was already doing that.

6 weeks later, PET scan: MULTIPLE  sclerotic skeletal  metastases. Enlarged mediastinal and hilar nodes.

Stage IV breast cancer.