Breast Cancer Awareness

I haven't updated in almost a year!  Time has been going so quickly, plus no one reads this so.. yeah.

Anyway, a lot has happened in the last year.  I have had a few health scares, along with a recent startling diagnosis. I am someone who is more susceptible to skin cancer than most, with my fair skin and abundance of moles, so I am always paying attention to any changes in my body.  I advise everyone else to do the same, as the human body is amazing and changes can often be ways for it to tell us that something is wrong.

This past January (I think) I had a mole removed and the pathology report came back as moderate-severe atypia.  I had to go in for a re-excision to make sure it wasn't malignant and that all the margins were clear.  The re-excision was done this past February, and I was fortunate in that everything was fine.  Whatever it was, I caught it early, and got rid of it before it could become worse.

Now, fast forward to September.  I know I am susceptible to melanoma, and one of these days I was actually kind of expecting to be diagnosed with it.  However, I hadn't even considered the possibility of me getting breast cancer.  (At least, not for several more years, since it is so rare in women my age).  About a month ago, I noticed a change with my breast.  I don't want to go into too much detail, but when it hadn't gone back to normal after a few days, I did some research.  I realized that most of the causes for this particular change were connected with aging or with infections or diseases which I was pretty sure I didn't have.  The other possible cause?  Breast Cancer.  I know this is unlikely at my age, but it was seeming like the most likely thing out of the other possibilities I came across.

I made an appointment with my GP, and she was quick to refer me to a Breast Specialist.  The BS referred me for an ultrasound, which found an "area of concern."  They didn't know what it was, so I had three biopsies and a mammogram.  The ultrasound, biopsies, and mammogram all happened this past Monday, and I got a call from the Radiologist on Wednesday that my biopsies needed further testing and that I would have to wait 3-4 more days for the results.

That was unsettling.

I went the next couple days worrying, sure I had to have breast cancer.  Then on Friday morning (yesterday) I got a call from the BS.  She told me that they still didn't have the final pathology, but that she had spoken to the original Pathologists and they told her that it definitely wasn't breast cancer.  Instead, she said it might be something benign called Papillomatosis that they might have to remove.  She told me I could breathe a sigh of relief, but for some reason (my own intuition I guess), I didn't feel the relief like everyone else did.  Something didn't feel right.  My mom was next to me when I got the call, and she hugged me with happiness.  She informed my extended family, I called my brother and told those who I had informed of my scare the good news.  I hadn't told very many people, since I didn't want to bring unnecessary stress into people's lives if it really was nothing.  My dad was relieved, my friends were relieved, everyone was relieved except me.

So then, later that day, around 4pm, I got another call from the Radiologist.  I was babysitting the kids at the time, but Caden was playing his video games and Taylor was upstairs, so I answered.  He asked me if I had time to go over the final pathology with him, and I said yes.  His tone sounded weird, not excited like it should have been if he were calling to tell me I didn't have cancer.  He told me I had something called Fibromatosis - Bland Spindle Cell Proliferation.  "It's not malignant, but it is a form of cancer and will need to be removed."  "How is it not malignant if it's cancer?"  "It doesn't metastasize and you won't require chemo or anything like that."  I guess it is considered a cancer because it is locally invasive, and it has a high frequency of recurrence.  He told me he would refer me to a surgeon who would contact me next week.  And he said it was REALLY rare, like less than 1% of all breast tumors.  I later looked it up and saw it accounts for about 0.2% of all breast tumors.

What are the odds?  Well, obviously 0.2%.  Or even less, since the odds of me even getting a cancerous breast tumor are low at this age.  Crazy.

I consider myself lucky, though.  Even though this is an annoying pain in the butt, it could have been a lot worse.  And I was expecting it to be worse.

It's frustrating, though.  I haven't been sleeping well for about a week now.  I don't think the bad dreams will stop until after I get this thing out of me.  I'm hoping that happens soon.

What I've learned from all this: pay attention to your body and trust your intuition.  Even if it looks like a subtle change, if you feel like it should be checked out, get it checked out.