I am truly the luckiest girl in the world! Yesterday i had my post operative assessment. For those of you in the know; this was a big day! The day i found out for sure whether or not the cancer had spread, my histolgy report (which hormones etc my cancer is receptive to), the stage of the cancer and the success of my surgery. Ok, so this is the technical stuff. For those of you (like me) who dont really understand the factors relevant in a cancer diagnosis let me explain - Ill try not to bore you!! There are 2 types of cancer. Invasive and non invasive. I had both! On the right, i had an invasive tumour grade 3 (the most invasive grade) which is HER2+ (HER2 is a protein which encourages a tumour to grow) HER2 is measured on a scale of 1-3. My scale is 3+. This means it has the potential to grow at an incredible rate. When assessing a tumour, they also measure its responsiveness to certain hormones - Estrogen & Progesterone. These hormones also encourage the tumour to grow rapidly. They are measured on a scale of 1-8, 8 being the fastest growing. Yes, youve guessed it folks! My tumour is scale 8 for both hormones. In short, a nasty bugger!!! In addition to the invasive cancer i had 2 areas of Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS). DCIS is non invasive cancer waiting to leave the milk ducts. On the left i had no invasive cancer (whoop whoop) but i had DCIS covering an area of 14cm, so pretty huge. In order to assess whether breast cancer has spread, they check your lymph nodes. The lymph nodes are your bodys drainage system, carrying fluid around your body. If the cancer reaches the lymph nodes it can spread around the body. Grade 3 invasive cancers do this. But not mine! It was caught before it had the opportunity to spread ☺ My surgery has been entirely successful!!!! All of the cancer has been removed!! I had a double mastectomy and immediate reconstruction. This is where implants are placed under the chest muscle (as there is no breast tissue remaining). The implants used are expanders, or pump up the volume implants as i have affectionately named them. I didnt realise before all this that reconstruction is a process, needing multiple surgeries to give you boobs. Next step is to go back fortnightly and have the implants pumped up. This is done slowly over time to stretch the chest muscles. As at the moment my boobs look like they have been hit with a frying pan!!! The pumping up over the next few months will fix this. More surgery will come after the chemo - ill explain that later nearer the time. I go back to the Marsden on the 16th of December to meet the oncology team to discuss the plans for my chemo, biological therapy (to deal with the HER2 protein) and hormone therapy (To manage the estrogen and progesterone) so ill post an update then. So in short, i truly am the luckiest girl in the world. If the lump had been discovered just a few weeks later, my story would be an entirely different one! I will never ever be adequately able to express my thanks to the wonderful people helping me though this journey. Whether my surgeon, a nurse, a friend, a family member or someone sending me a message of support. Each and everyone of you uplift me every day and i thank you with all my heart xxx Ps So gonna kick this things ass!!!
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 12:05:59 +0000
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