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In September of 2014, I heard the words that every woman dreads "You have metastatic breast cancer." You don't hear much after the doctor tells you that. It's kind of like the Charlie Brown "wah wah wah wah wah" that the adults speak.
I had a normal mammo gram in April 2014, and in August I found a lump under my arm. Things moved fast - doctor's appointment, mammo gram, ultrasound, biopsy....diagnosis....MRI, oncologist appointment, port placement, CT scans and more CT scans, and then my first chem. October 8, 2014. A friend went with me. It was an uneventful 6 hours. Three different medications, after a few anti nausea meds. Then home. Then 24 hours of nausea...the kind you can't move without thinking you're dying. But it passed.
Two weeks later, back to the oncologist. "You're hair hasn't started falling out, but it will". And it did. A tug on it on the way home, and out came a handfull. I stopped at my friend's shop, and had her shave my head. And so started almost of year of baldness.
Another week passed, and back to chemo....chemo every 3 weeks, 6 cycles....no more nausea...but a lot of other side effects...taste buds - dead!, mouth sores!, a bad skin reaction - thank God only hands and feet. And others....Chemo brain is real!
Halfway thru my chemos, the oncologist says, "It's time to think about your mastectomy." Shock again.....my surgeon thought maybe just chemo and radiation. But mastectomy instead. I always said, if I got breast cancer, I'd have one, but now...facing it...it's another story. But face it I did. The cancer was only in my right breast, with lymph node involvement, and my surgeon said I could just have it removed, have reconstruction if I wanted. Nope....I do things ALL THE WAY!!! Told him both, and no reconstruction. I've seen the pictures and heard the stories....infections, pain, no nipples, no sensation, just two lobs of fat, sitting on your chest, so others will think you are "normal" when they see you with clothes on. Not for me.
So on Feburary 9th, 2015, I went under the knife, and three hours later, went from a 44 D, to flat....almost a zipper across my chest...(tattoo idea mabye). No more bras, no under boob sweat, no bouncing when I run (I don't run, who am I kidding). But I'M ALIVE! and around to tell my story!
