Life Goes On...

I have to admit I've had so much going on with the several restorative surgeries I have had since being diagnosed with DCIS breast cancer, stage 0, that I haven't been back to update this site. I was new to blogging when I first started this blog, and I was disappointed because no one commented so I didn't continue.

I wish I had because one of the best things about blogging, other than comments from others, is that you get to see how you felt about things that were going on for you--just like in a journal. Only this is a public journal.

So here's what's been going on for me since October, 2005 when I was diagnosed with DCIS breast cancer. See http://www.breastcancer.org/dcis_ductal_carcinoma_in_situ.html for general medical information on DCIS. Now this is where I wish I had been writing this blog all along, but I guess I wasn't up to it at the time.

First of all, it was mostly shocking to be diagnosed with breast cancer. I was in a state of shock for months. First I had a mammogram. A couple of days later, they called me back to say there were some places they wanted to examine closer. Well, that was no big deal, I'd had that happen before. I went back for the 2nd mammogram and they also did a sonogram on the left breast. Then they decided I should have a "Mamo-test" which I was unable to learn anything about on the Internet.

Within a week, I went for the stereotactic mammogram, which is what the "Mamo-test's real name was, I learned. This was a hard table with a hole in it, covered in fabric, but not really soft. I laid down on the table with my left breast hanging through the hole. No medication, no Xanax. A female radiologist and her assistants came in to explain the procedure. There I am, frightened to death, they are explaining what they will do, which consists of a tiny camera placed on the end of a tiny tube that they are going to put into my left breast, all without medication. Actually, it did not hurt, but it lasted about 2 hours because it turned out there were about 3 different sites of the cancer but each site was tiny. This was the biopsy. I was stressed to the max for 2 hours. Just to show you how little I knew at the time, I said, "They don't do radical mastectomies anymore, do they?" They said, "well, uh, yes they do, depending on the cancer." "Oh," I said in a tiny voice.

At that time, they weren't telling me much about my cancer. The next step was a consultation with a Oncologist. I was still pretty much in denial. Things like breast cancer don't happen to me, was I in denial!! More to come soon, I promise.