The diagnosis

 We met with our surgical oncologist today. I will have many many appointments and a whole cancer team with me for this year. The surgical oncologist is just the first step in wading through my diagnosis and figuring out what my whole treatment plan will be. I went into this appointment expecting the worst, so I was probably a little too happy about the small wins. I left feeling hopeful and happy even though the next ten months or so are going to be pretty painful and grueling. 

First off, my cancer is triple positive which means it is has receptors for estrogen, progesterone and HER2. This is good news because it means that chemotherapy will be better at targeting those receptors and therefore more effective. My second “win” is that so far it doesn’t seem to be in too many of my lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are good to have and keep. They filter out bad stuff and keep your arm healthy. Thankfully, I may only need a couple removed when it’s time for surgery. My last “win” is that I may not need a full mastectomy. I still have some testing and research to determine what surgery is best for me, but I’m very happy to have more options available to me. 

My treatment plan so far is 5 months of chemotherapy (goodbye hair), followed by surgery and radiation. Then hormone therapy will continue for a number of years after that to keep any cancer at bay. I’ll be meeting with my medical oncologist this week to get more details about my treatment and chemotherapy. Next week, I’ll be getting a port placed to make chemo infusions and blood draws go more smoothly. Chemo will likely start before Thanksgiving, so it looks like I’m not hosting this year!