My journey with breast cancer
Donation protected
This year was going quite smoothly, after an odd salivary gland infection that made me look like I had mumps. A strong antibiotic, warm compresses and sucking on lemons resolved it within a month. I got a part-time job with Santander Bank, in their wire department, sending money around the globe. In mid-April, went for my routine annual mammagram, and got notified fairly quickly that there was a suspicious spot they wanted to biopsy in my left breast. Since a 2013 mammagram had resulted in the same request and the biopsy was benign, I wasn't concerned. So, on a Thursday I had the biopsy at the local Women's Health Center, and put the whole thing out of my mind.
All that ended the following Monday morning, when nurse practioner called and asked me to come in to discuss the biopsy results. I said you wouldn't be calling me to discuss good news... and she asked me to come in as soon as possible. The biopsy was cancerous. Since I live on the south coast of Massachusetts, my immediate decision was I did not want to be treated for cancer in a community hospital when Dana Farber Cancer Institue is a mere 62 miles away. My first appointments at Dana Farber were scheduled and I saw the surgeon, the oncologist and the radiolgist, All said my breast cancer was Stage 1, and Grade 1 (meaning it was a slow growing cancer) .
My surgery for a lumpectomy and a sentinal node removal was done on June 1st. The plan at that point was to begin radiation treatments within a few weeks of the surgery. But the surgeon called two days prior to my post-surgical appointment and said the two lymphnodes he removed were both cancerous and I would need a second surgery to remove and test more lymphnodes. My diagnosis changed to Stage 2 breast cancer. That surgery was more extensive. But the bad news just kept coming... three days after the surgery, the surgeon called and said more lymphnodes were cancerous. My cancer now moved to a Stage 3 diagnosis. My oncololgist called and requested that we schedule a bone scan and cat scan to determine if the cancer was anywhere else in my body, at which point my diagnosis would become Stage 4.
One very long weekend ensued between the Friday scans and my Monday appointment with my oncologist. My only desire at that point was to be told it wasn't Stage 4. I really needed the bad news to stop, and it did. But now I needed more than radiation to stop the spread and we agreed to start chemotheray on August 25th. I've settled into this needs to be done and the next 4 months of bi-monthly six hour infusions at Dana Farber will be taken one day at a time. I may have some or all of the unpleasant side effects, including hair loss, nausea, fatigue and other assorted annoyances. Once the chemo treatments were scheduled, I got a call from the pharmacy associate at Dana Farber to discuss the co-pay for one of the three drugs that will be used in the treatments.....it will be $1,980 per treatment. She arranged for a foundation to cover the first $4,100. And that's as far as things are right now.
All that ended the following Monday morning, when nurse practioner called and asked me to come in to discuss the biopsy results. I said you wouldn't be calling me to discuss good news... and she asked me to come in as soon as possible. The biopsy was cancerous. Since I live on the south coast of Massachusetts, my immediate decision was I did not want to be treated for cancer in a community hospital when Dana Farber Cancer Institue is a mere 62 miles away. My first appointments at Dana Farber were scheduled and I saw the surgeon, the oncologist and the radiolgist, All said my breast cancer was Stage 1, and Grade 1 (meaning it was a slow growing cancer) .
My surgery for a lumpectomy and a sentinal node removal was done on June 1st. The plan at that point was to begin radiation treatments within a few weeks of the surgery. But the surgeon called two days prior to my post-surgical appointment and said the two lymphnodes he removed were both cancerous and I would need a second surgery to remove and test more lymphnodes. My diagnosis changed to Stage 2 breast cancer. That surgery was more extensive. But the bad news just kept coming... three days after the surgery, the surgeon called and said more lymphnodes were cancerous. My cancer now moved to a Stage 3 diagnosis. My oncololgist called and requested that we schedule a bone scan and cat scan to determine if the cancer was anywhere else in my body, at which point my diagnosis would become Stage 4.
One very long weekend ensued between the Friday scans and my Monday appointment with my oncologist. My only desire at that point was to be told it wasn't Stage 4. I really needed the bad news to stop, and it did. But now I needed more than radiation to stop the spread and we agreed to start chemotheray on August 25th. I've settled into this needs to be done and the next 4 months of bi-monthly six hour infusions at Dana Farber will be taken one day at a time. I may have some or all of the unpleasant side effects, including hair loss, nausea, fatigue and other assorted annoyances. Once the chemo treatments were scheduled, I got a call from the pharmacy associate at Dana Farber to discuss the co-pay for one of the three drugs that will be used in the treatments.....it will be $1,980 per treatment. She arranged for a foundation to cover the first $4,100. And that's as far as things are right now.
Organizer
Ellen Nelson
Organizer
Fairhaven, MA