Naming the Beast

I finally know what to call the breast, I mean "beast." I have Stage 3a Locally Advanced Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. How's that for a mouthful? I think I'll call it "LAID to 3rd Degree" because it's trying to give my body a royal screwing!!! I wasn't surprised it was staged as a three because of the size and lymph node involvement. The tumor is sized between 3-3.8 cm and has travelled into at least three of my lymph nodes as confirmed by biopsies on my left titty and lymph nodes. The cancer is a triple positive. That means it tested positive for estrogen, progesterone, and HER2 receptors.

Typically with breast cancer, the doctors do the surgery first, then follow with chemo and radiation if necessary. Since my cancer is quite aggressive and has grown so big so fast, my doctors are kicking my treatment off with chemo first, followed by surgery then radiation. Because of the HER2+ status, I will be on Herceptin chemo for an entire year. I wish I could say that starting off with chemo was an effort to save my ta-tas, but it's really an effort to save my life. With advanced cancer they know has already travelled to the lymph nodes, they basically have to nuke your whole system in an effort to stop the progression to wherever else it may have spread. They just don't have any way of knowing where else it has travelled until a tumor gets big enough or symptoms appear. It's not as exact a science as I thought, unfortunately. Sweet, right! I don't think the choice of having a mastectomy is ultimately going to be mine, but that's ok because I've already decided I want them gone so I don't feel like a time bomb waiting for the next recurrence in my boobs. That part I can control a little.

My fight against breast cancer officially started Friday, October 18, 2013, when I took my first course of chemo and finally got to go on the attack. It had been exactly one month since my screening mammogram which is when they knew something wasn't quite right. I've gotten a mammogram every single year since I turned 38 (I'm now 41), and last year's was clear as can be. Go figger! I will take a round of chemo every 3 weeks for 6 cycles. This holds true for the toughest regiment of chemo I am getting which is a cocktail of Herceptin (aka Trastuzumab), Paraplatin (Carboplatin), and Taxotere (Doxetaxel). One round down, five to go! I'm holding out hope my next round of chemo will include a fourth medicine called Perjeta (Pertuzumab) which was just FDA approved in neoadjuvant breast cancer treatment for ladies like me with HER2+ receptors. I'm counting on this new treatment to improve the not so rosy recurrence rates that happen with my type of cancer. As I stated before, I'll take Herceptin for one year, but my hair will grow back while I'm on just that chemo.

The morning before I started chemo, I had surgery to install a Power Port (or port-o-cath) in my chest just under my right clavicle. It has a catheter attached which runs through my chest into the main vein right above the heart. It's a straight shot to the heart from there! It is through this port that I receive all my chemo and where they draw blood. It was pretty painful at first, but my body adapted well and now it's my new buddy. It will save wear and tear on the veins in my arms and for that I am grateful.

I'm ready for this fight, and thank goodness I worked so hard over the past two-and-a-half years to get healthy. This is when I need that strong body and mind I've been cultivating. It's my time to R-O-A-R!!!