So I was finally told, that I have Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. Andy and I immediately went to the internet to find out what that meant. IDC begins in a the milk duct in the breast and breaks through into the surrounding fatty tissue of the breast. From there, IDC can metastasize (spread) to other parts of the body through the bloodstream or lymphatic system.
Over the next couple of day's I had an MRI done, met with the surgeon and oncologist, and then had a CT scan, Muga test, and Bone scan. My mom came down and took me to the MRI. It really was an easy test. Lasted about 45 minutes, just was a little sore because of the biopsy that was down earlier.
Andy, my mom, and I sat down with the surgeon for 1.5 hours. We figured having another set of ears along would be helpful, and I guess when your sick it always helps to have your mom there comforting you too. He explained the different treatment plans that we could do. Explained a little more about the cancer and answered questions that we had. He truly was sincere and made you feel like he cared. He said that we will get through this! It will be long and hard, but you will make it. He then helped set up the appointment with the oncologist for the afternoon.
Our meeting with the Oncologist lasted for over two hours; Dr. Hake was incredibly knowledgeable about breast cancer, and really, really nice with a great sense of humor. At this time Dr. Hake did say that he got some of the pathology report and was able to tell us that I have grade 3 cancer meaning it is irregular cells that divide and spread at a more rapid rate than grade 1 or 2. It is also local advanced stage 3 cancer. This means it is larger than 5 cm and has spread to at least 2 lymph nodes. So since that cancer has started to spread and at this time we weren't sure how far, he advised us to start chemo treatments first, and then follow up with surgery and radiation. Unfortunately we still had to wait on the receptors to know what type of chemo treatment I was going to be on. He explained the two different options both consisting of 20 weeks of chemo treatments, but at this time I had so much information thrown at me it was hard to follow. Dr. Hake did go over all the NASTY side effects that I will likely experience. I had actually known about some of the side-effects, but hearing it straight from the horse's mouth made this all so much more real--real in the sense that it will all really be happening to me. We are treating my cancer very aggressively due to my age and type of breast cancer that I have.
We got the results from all of the scans and they came back clear. So at least some good news that they didn't find the cancer any where else. My Muga scan came back at 72%, which they said was good and that my heart should be able to handle the chemo treatments. We found out that I am ER+(estrogen) and PR+(progesterone). This means that the breast cancer is considered “hormone-receptor-positive.” So most likley one of the chemo drugs that I'll be receiving is tamoxifen (an anti-hormonal medication). Hormonal therapy may help to slow or stop the growth of hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers by lowering your body’s estrogen levels or blocking the effects of estrogen. We were still waiting on the HER-2 test. Her2 status is a marker test performed on certain breast cancer tissue. Her2 is a gene that helps control how cells grow, divide and repair themselves. Cancers that have too many copies of the Her2 gene tend to grow fast but respond well to a treatment that works against Her2 called Herceptin.
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