Cancer Diaries

Cancer Diary 2

Hello there!

My name is Queen, I am am a disabled cannabis educator from DC whose lived in MD the majority of my life, I am 1/2 of Dispense Throne, lab technician and mother of an Autistic 13 year old and wife; in other parts of my life, I’m known as DQ and have dedicated the last 15 years of my life towards cannabis education, advocacy while in pursuit of a cannabis license in MD, this has involved doing lots of mutual aid and donations towards other folks who needed assistance from legal, personal and financial and recently I’ve been diagnosed with Stage 2b Infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma in Situ with a nuclear grade 2/3 tumor in my left breast.

I will be having a Lumpectomy in January 2025, followed by hormone therapy and radiation therapy sometime in January which means that I will be temporarily be capable of doing any of my jobs for a undetermined amount of time which creates added stress beyond the diagnosis but financial stress without even including co-pays and other aspects of treatment that tends to not be spoken about, normally I am the one organizing help for others but now I am the one in need of help.

After calculating current bills, upcoming co-pays and what won’t be covered by insurance, I set a goal with those things in mind and appreciate, any and all assistance.

sharing, reposting is free!

Self Breast Exams find 40% of Breast Cancers that start with a lump

Breast Cancer timeline:

Original complaint of pain in breast: 2/10/23

Self-Breast Check: 11/10/24

Ultrasound and Mammogram: 12/17/24

Multi Site Biopsy: 12/16/24

Pathology & Surgical Referral: 1/9/25

Surgical Consultation for Lumpectomy: 12/21/25

1/30/25: Genetic testing done - negative for all breast cancer mutations

2/5/25 - MRI cleared of any new cancer, tumor confirmed to have shrank, no cancer in right breast

2/18/25: consultation for breast reconstruction, will be having a masteoplexy immediately after my partial mastectomy.

3/27/25: date of Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction (completed, went from a natural DD to a modest CC. It’s been weird but I’ve adjusted 4 months post op)

4/7/25: Post Op Appointment, breasts looked great *

*we discovered the breast cancer had spread locally to my lymph nodes, the plan changed…

5/16/25 I had a chemo port installed once my doctor did a oncotype time to decide if she felt I would better benefit from chemotherapy instead of hoping the radiation could clear it up. Unfortunately my reoccurrence rate was 13% without chemotherapy, 10% with just radiation after surgery, and with chemotherapy 5%

6/12/25 Started IVF medication to preserve my eggs after fighting with insurance for almost 2 months, LiveStrong foundation also donated medication.

6/26/25 - 5 Mature eggs were taken and frozen until 2028. I had to began my ovarian suppressant and estrogen blockers.

6/30/25 Began Taxotere and Cytoxan Chemotherapy, 3 hour infusions, currently 2 rounds schedule, will revevalute on 7/27/25 how many more rounds.

7/21 - Next scheduled Chemo, C2D1

7/24 - PET scan and tumor marker labs to see if I still have tumor cells and hope that my cancer didn’t move anywhere else and I also get my second cancer staging, may I either be survivor or downgraded! I was upgraded to stage 3 and then downgraded when they didn’t originally see tumor cells outside of my lymph nodes but i was 2 months before chemo with no other treatment and did hormones for IVF so out of concern of my estrogen causing my cancer is spread (my cancer is estrogen positive), we literally went from RETRIEVING MY EGGS ON THURSDAY AND STARTED CHEMO ON A MONDAY, it was a wild experience because I wanted to celebrate our babies being frozen for the future but was overwrought with the expectation of starting chemo.

Which we very scary, I was alone because my husband had to take my son to 9th grade orientation so I did the 4 hours solo, but I did it! My sister plans to come next time and color with me lol.

upcoming:

8/1? radiation and hormone therapy and survivorship status?

-first Chemo session was 4 hours, chemo is absolutely hell

June 13th I celebrated my 39th birthday with my family and friends. ❤️

My sister and I saw sailor moon live in April ❤️