Suck it Cancer

Yesterday was the big day!  I wanted to update everyone, but I got so tired by the end of the day I just couldn't do it.  But here I am!  And I am all ready to tell you all about my pathology report!  EEP!

I was very nervous heading to Dr. Blackwood's office.  Deep down in my gut I knew everything was fine, but what if, just what if, something was a little funky?  What if it was a little different than we all thought?  What could the report possibly say?!  Theo drove me to the hospital and we met up with Dad at the office.

The appointment began promptly at 10am.  I met with Dr. Blackwood first for her to examine me.  She still can't get over how good I look a week after surgery.  I told her I am feeling better day by day.  She then called in Dad and Theo to go over the pathology reports.

So here we go... I am going to explain it the best I can... feel free to ask any questions!  First things first, I AM CANCER FREE!  Suck it cancer, you don't get to hang out in my body any more.  Booyah!  Second things second, it turns out that the cancer was not DCIS... it did break out of the milk duct a bit.  What they found was, "micropapillary invasive carcinoma."  And guess how big it was?  Just take a WILD guess!  Come on!  OK, I'll tell you, it was 1mm.  ONE MILLIMETER!  Dr. Blackwood said that that just does not happen.  One does not pull out a one millimeter tumor.  It's too tiny!  You can't find something like that on your own!  It's so tiny that the only info they can get from it is that it was cancerous.  They are still trying to see if it is estrogen positive or negative.  They are still trying to get more info, but it's so tiny they can't get anything from it.  They were able to get clear margins, so that's it.  That's the amount of cancer I had in me.  One millimeter.

I had a double mastectomy with reconstruction for one millimeter of cancer.  Dr. Blackwood said I must have had someone looking out for me (duh!), because if there was no discharge I'd still be living with the tiny cancer, that would have grown and spread over many years.  I'm young, my body is able to handle all of this, I don't have children I have to take care of yet, I have amazing people looking out for me as I recover.  Now was the time to get it done.  Someone out there knew that one day I'd need to get a double mastectomy, and why not get it now?  Get that 1mm of cancer out, and never have to worry about it again.

I asked Dr. Blackwood what she thought of the little calcifications in my milk duct and why they were there and she said the pathologist is still looking in to it.  It may have started as DCIS, and then the little mm decided to break free.  I may still have more info to report later in the game.

I will still meet with an oncologist.  She said that usually 4mm of cancer and above they treat with chemo and possibly radiation, but she's not sure how he will handle 1/4 of that.  I'm hoping I don't have to deal with any of that, but I will do whatever the doctors say.  I have not been lead astray yet.  My doctor was so pleased with the results, as am I obviously.  I am so happy and relieved and can now focus on recovery.  I have my physical therapy appointment on Monday and my first expansion on Tuesday.  I will be very tired this upcoming week, but I am ready to get this all over with and behind me!

I love you all!

- J.