Rosie's Cancer Journey

On Monday, October 6, when I woke up that morning, I felt a lump. It was a weird and unusual lump in my left breast. I had Jeff feel it and he agreed that it was weird. I only felt it because of how I was laying. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known. I immediately called my doctor network, Kaiser, who got me in for a phone appointment that same day. The next day, I went in for a mammogram and an ultrasound. I could see the results and I know what “spiculated” meant from being at appointments with my dad. Cysts do not grow like that. Tumors do. It was no surprise to me that they wanted me to get a biopsy two days later. It was a surprise that they saw something in my lymph nodes under my armpit on the same side. And when the results of the biopsy came back, it was confirmed that I have breast cancer. Happy 50th birthday to me!

Fast forward to today.

I had a PET CT scan, genetic blood work, flu & COVID shots, and met with the surgeon, the oncologist, and radiologist (3 separate appointments) at Kaiser. They confirmed it spread to my lymph nodes under my armpit on my left side. They preliminarily staged it at 2B. Invasive ductal carcinoma. HER2 positive, double hormone negative.

Then the PET scan results came in, and that showed a hot spot in my liver that is “concerning”. If the cancer spread to my liver, it is stage 4 and not curable. I am getting an urgent MRI done on my liver (yet to be scheduled, they were gone for the day).

IF IT IS GOOD NEWS and they can tell it hasn’t spread to my liver from the upcoming MRI, then I move forward with getting a chest port for chemo infusions and start the 18 week course of chemo (6 times every 3 weeks).

IF IT IS BAD NEWS on the MRI, I have to get a liver biopsy where I go under in surgery, and that is scheduled for 11/11 along with getting a chest port put in. And then soon after, I start the 18 weeks of chemo. But if it is in my liver, it’s likely in my blood also. That is really bad. But one day at a time.

For either path – Towards the end of chemo, I meet with the surgeon again and either get a lumpectomy or a mastectomy or a double mastectomy. What I do depends on the results from the liver MRI / liver biopsy and genetic testing. But the surgeon was confident she could remove the cancer from the breast and take care of the lymph node area. Lumpectomy is 1-2 weeks of recovery and a mastectomy is 6-8 weeks. There is no advantage to one over the other unless my genetics or the biopsy say otherwise.

Then at the end of all this, like in 7-8 months from now, there is radiation and infusion therapy. Radiation is 5 weeks, every day. I think I also get HER2 therapy of some sort at this point, but this is where they lost me.

For now, let’s just hope it is not in my liver. One day at a time.

We decided a blog post is probably the easiest way to keep everyone updated on this journey. This way, I can post, or Jeff can post, or someone else can post for us. You can subscribe to the blog. We will share directions on how to do that at some point. We will also link to the blog on Facebook and on Instagram stories because most, but not all, of our peeps are on one of those. And it is so retro! I used to blog like 20 years ago, and I loved doing it. I love a good throwback.