My Breast Cancer Journey

Lump Discovery: Start of my Breast Cancer Journey

My name is Heather and this is my journey with breast cancer. My breast cancer journey started in November of 2022, I felt a small lump in my right breast. I didn’t worry about it since I was only 39 years old and way too young to have cancer. I put off getting checked by my doctor because I was super busy at my environmental science job and caring for my family. One morning my husband was concerned because he felt a lump in my right breast. If he was worried then I thought maybe it was a good idea to finally get it checked out!

I made an appointment with my primary care doctor in December 2022. She felt the lump and thought I should get it checked just to be safe. She referred me to get a mammogram. I feel lucky that she listened to me and supported my instinct to get checked out since I know that not all doctors listen to women about their health issues.

The weekend before my mammogram, my twin sister, Melissa, and I took our kids and mom on a trip away from home. It was hunting season and our husbands, brother, and sister-in-law were all out hunting so we wanted to get away for some fun. That was the first time Melissa felt my lump and she was a little worried too. We chose not to tell our mom because we didn’t want her to worry about me.

The Mammogram

In early December I went in for my first mammogram. A mammogram is an X-ray picture of your breast and is used to detect breast cancer. The mammogram department at my hospital had some wonderful mammogram technicians. They made the experience less scary for me.

Scans of both of my breasts were performed. It was not a comfortable procedure but it did not hurt very much. They had to squish my breasts in the machine and take more pictures than typical due to my dense breasts and the lump. A lot of younger women have dense breasts which are harder to image.

The radiologist decided that I needed an ultrasound of my right breast and armpit. An ultrasound was performed to determine if a biopsy of the lump was needed. This was a nerve-racking experience and I was pretty nervous at this point. The radiologist told me that I should expect some surgery soon. I set up a biopsy with the breast cancer surgeon for the next day. 

The Biopsy

That night, I told my mom and Melissa about needing a biopsy of the lump to rule out cancer. Typically, lumps in women my age are not cancer, but we were glad that they were moving fast just in case. I asked my mom to come with me to get the biopsy done.

I had an ultrasound-guided biopsy on my right breast. They also took one lymph node out for biopsy because it was inflamed. My doctor and her nurse were wonderful and very nice but I was scared and it hurt. They sent the tissue to the pathology department to determine if it was indeed cancer.

The Shocking News

The Monday after the biopsy, my surgeon called me to let me know I had breast cancer. I was in total shock. I never thought that I would have breast cancer at 39. It was probably the most shocking news of my entire life. I called my sister and she was also shocked. We don’t have breast cancer in our immediate family. My mom and close aunts have not had cancer of any type and are in their 70s.

I was afraid to tell my boss, but I had no choice. I knew that treatment was going to happen soon and that I would need to get started quickly. Once again I was lucky that my boss and colleagues were understanding and supportive.

My Diagnosis

I was referred to an oncologist. He told us that the cancer type in my right breast was invasive ductal carcinoma grade 3. This means that the cancer can spread outside the breast. Grade 3 means it is an aggressive tumor. The cancer hormone results came back and they were ER (estrogen) positive (70%) and PR (progesterone) positive (60%). My HER2/NEU results were negative (this is a more aggressive cancer but can be better targeted with specific chemo drugs). Ki-67:50%. To learn more about the types of cancer and what this means click here: https://twins4wellness.com/the-different-types-of-breast-cancer-the-complete-list/

My oncologist told us that my cancer stage is stage IIb. My cancer is IIb because it spread beyond the breast to at least one lymph node. The doctor explained that my breast cancer is hormone-driven. He then gave me a treatment plan.

Treatment Plan for My Breast Cancer Journey

My treatment plan included: chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, and then hormone therapy. I was scared, anxious, and nervous about the treatment plan. A nurse navigator set up all my next appointments to get me started on my cancer treatment journey. Click here for information about the best treatment options for breast cancer: https://twins4wellness.com/the-best-treatments-for-breast-cancer/.

Chemotherapy

The first step in my treatment plan was chemotherapy. I needed to get a port. A port needs to be surgically installed to deliver the chemo drugs. It was a simple surgery and recovery was not too bad.

I started Chemotherapy the next week. All of this happened so fast, from diagnosis to starting chemotherapy was only 7 days, that my brain had a hard time keeping up. Right before Christmas, I had my first Chemotherapy infusion. I was surprised at how it went. It was not as bad as I thought it would be. It was doable, not easy but I knew I could do it, especially having the support of my family, colleagues, and friends. After five months of chemotherapy, I had six glorious weeks to heal before surgery. I will be adding another post that discusses chemotherapy and how I survived it.

Breast Cancer Surgery

My surgery started at 4:30 in the morning. They had to do some imaging and a lymph node dye test before the surgery. These tests were ok but unexpected. The dye test took longer than we were expecting so my surgery started late. The surgery also took longer than expected because the surgeon had to take out more lymph nodes because I had a second positive lymph node. They took out 14 lymph nodes and two were positive for cancer.

I spent that night in the hospital and I was in quite a bit of pain. I wasn’t expecting to have so many lymph nodes taken out. They ended up inserting a drain as well. I spent the next 5 days recovering at my parent’s house since my husband had to work. It was very nice and peaceful. My mom spoiled me with healthy food and allowed me the rest that I needed. A special thank you to our Mom for being there for this whole ordeal! She is the best mom and grandma ever!

The Follow Up

I then had a follow-up appointment with my surgeon and she said everything is healing well. I had to keep my drain because it was still filling up with too much fluid and we didn’t want to take it out too soon or I could have lots of complications. My breast tissue pathology came back with clear margins and I had 2 of 14 lymph nodes positive for cancer. Because of the positive lymph nodes, I will need radiation to ensure all the microscopic cancer cells are gone. I made an appointment with the radiation oncologist and my oncologist.

Radiation Oncologist

The radiation oncologist walked me through the next steps after I healed from the surgery and had my drain taken out. I had 30 radiation treatments. Once a day for five days for six weeks. Then I met with my oncologist and he recommended that I start on another form of chemo after radiation is done. I will also start hormone therapy.

Radiation:

I started radiation in September 2023 and finished in October of 2023. I thought it would be easy but I was scared the first few times, Radiation was every day of the week for 6 weeks and each session was under 15 minutes. It made me exhausted and I got burns under my armpit and under my right breast. During this time I also went to a physical therapist for my right arm.

I have lymphoedema in that arm from the surgery and radiation made it worse so I went to see a physical therapist. She helped me get the movement back in my arm. It still hurts and I am still working on getting it back to normal. The doctor gave me a special cream that helped with radiation burns and it worked wonders. See this link for more information on how to cope with radiation treatment. How to Cope with Nasty Radiation Side Effects for Breast Cancer I was so glad to be done with radiation treatment. My next step is hormone therapy and oral chemo.

Here is a picture of the leaf I got to put on the radiation tree when I completed my treatment.

Hormone Treatment/Oral Chemo

I started on hormone blockers and an oral chemo in October after radiation treatment. A Lupron shot was started as well, this shot shuts down my ovaries so that they do not produce estrogen which feeds my cancer. I am also on anastrozole which is also a hormone inhibitor. For the next 10 years, I will be on these drugs. They have put me into early menopause. The only side effects I’ve noticed so far are hot flashes and tiredness. These two drugs should hopefully reduce my reoccurrence rates.

My Oncologist also recommended a new treatment to go with these hormone blockers. It is a new drug that has been shown to reduce reoccurrence. It is called Verzenio here is a post about this drug: The Most Important Information about Verzenio. I am having some horrible side effects from this drug so I am trying to figure out if I should stay on it. I have about 1.5 years left and it has given me random stomach cramps, diarrhea, and exhaustion. My doctor has left it up to me to decide what to do. There is no guarantee that this drug or the hormone blockers will prevent cancer from coming back but the evidence suggests that it can help.

Conclusion

For now, I am recovering well and using blogging as a way to alleviate some of the worries and stress that my breast cancer journey has brought on. I hope to help others going through their breast cancer journeys to better understand breast cancer. My sister and I will continue to post about my breast cancer journey and other information that we think is valuable to Breast cancer survivors and their support team!