At some point in all of our lives each of us has been told "everything happens for a reason." I have always been a believer of this and tend to approach things by finding the positive before looking for the negative. My newest quote is..."what doesn't kill you, cures you!" Anyone who has gone through chemo can relate to that!
Anyway...back to blogging. Everything happens for a reason. Ok, what reason could you possibly find for being separated from your family, friends, home, animals, etc and be positive about it? Hmmppphhh....I did. I looked at landing in Washington, DC as proof that I was alive, had a job and everything would get better with time...or would it?
From August 2005 - April 2007, I spent about 46 weeks a year in DC and 6 weeks a year with my family in Gulfport. I looked for any opportunity to visit home. Mammogram..sure book me. Ultrasound...sure, just tell me when and I will be there. I was probably more dilligent about my healthcare during this 20 month period than in my entire life! Ahhh...maybe THAT was the everything happens for a reason!
This is where the story gets strange. I was having to have every 6 month ultra sounds on my right breast and an annual mammogram. My husband called me in Dec 2006 and told me I had received a reminder from the doctor that my 6 month breast ultrasound was due. I called and scheduled the appointment during my Christmas visit home. When I called the physicians office I reminded them that I was working in DC and to please schedule everything I needed during the period I would be home. She told me she would. So..off I go to the ultrasound and my doctor's appointment was 3 days later. The doctor felt that my right breast was doing fine and I should just return to my annual mammogram and that would be just fine. I was relieved!
Now...remember me saying I asked the doctor's office to schedule EVERYTHING I needed for the time period I would be in Gulfport? Guess what...she didn't! The day before I was due to leave I get a card in the mail that says "it is time for you annual mammogram." I had meetings booked in DC so there was no way I could change my departure date so I decided that I would just have the mammogram on my next visit home since the breast they had been watching had been "discharged" and returned to routine. Everything happens for a reason??
When I returned to DC, I called the doctor's office and scheduled my mammogram for April. Life rocked on in DC. That was a busy time frame for me and the days just flew by. Fast forward to April.
I went to my mammogram appointment and had an appointment with my physician 3 days later. When I walked into the office, the manager noted I was "late" with my mammogram. Hello?? I asked you to schedule everything I needed for my December visit. Everything happens for a reason??
The doctor said he thought everything was ok but because he and the radiologist disagrees on what they were seeing, he felt a biopsy would be in order. I had a rather active schedule in DC and asked if I could have it done the first week in June? He said sure....he didn't see a need to get all rushed about it. Everything happens for a reason?
I returned to DC, informed everyone of the situation and plunged back in to "LIFE IN DC". During this period of time I really didn't reflect much on the looming biopsy. Everything happens for a reason??
June 5th arrived and I was back in Gulfport for my guided needle biopsy. Let me tell you ladies..a mammogram is a walk in the park compared to this procedure. The actually GUIDE a looonnnnngggggggg needle into your breast to the areas they are wanting to focus on and then they do a mammogram with this lloooonnnnnnggggg needle still in your breast. And you are AWAKE!
Three days later finds me in the doctors office where I hear the dreaded words..."you have cancer." The doctor was optimistic. He said the malignant tumor in the right breast was less than 1 cm in size so he felt it was a very early stage cancer. He told me I could opt for a lumpectomy if I wanted. I looked him square in the eyes and said.."hell no...take this sucker off and while you are at it, take the left one too!" He told me he routinely does NOT remove an unaffected breast but since I had been his patient for some many years and every year I asked for a preventative mastectomy, he would do it if I was sure. I looked at him and laughed...you can't have the right without the left...I am having a BOGO sale on my boobs! The surgery is scheduled for July 9, 2007. Still I am amazingly calm!
So reflect back to December 2006 when the doctor took me off the 6 month watch and the nurse DID NOT schedule everything as I requested. If I had done the mammogram at the same time as the ultrasound, would they have found the early cancer or would it have been discovered the following YEAR and been not so early? Everything happens for a reason?? YOU BET IT DOES!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
The Start of My Journey
I always knew that breast cancer would be in my future. My mother died of breast/bone cancer in February 1987. Since I was built so much like her I felt that I would be the one! I lived with the annual fear of "is this the year?" since I was 30 years old. Somehow I never thought beyond that fear.
I was diagnosed with fibrocystic breast disease when I was 32 years old. I went to the Susan Komen Center for Breast Cancer when I was 40 for a holistic evaluation. At that time my risk for breast cancer was thought to be about the same as any woman, despite my mother having died from the disease.
I always thought the left breast would be the one to develop cancer. The Butt sisters lived in that breast. They were 3 BIG cysts that would fill up with fluid, lock their butts together and just have a good old time. They had to be drained several times and the only way the middle sister could get rid of her fluid was for them to insert the needle through the outside sisters to get to her. I kept many a technician in stitches talking about the Butt Sisters.
But while I was entertaining the technicians the right breast was slowly cultivating THE ONE! The strange thing is that right after my mother died I found a very small lump in this location but the doctor could not feel it nor did any future testing reveal it until 2007. Could my mother have caused THE ONE to rear its head for a warning?
My life as a full time, working mother/wife kept me busy. By 2002 I had received several promotions and was now traveling between Washington, DC and Gulfport, MS working for the Armed Forces Retirement Home. My life was hectic but it was just the CALM before the STORM.
My husband was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in 2004. He had his prostate removed at the age of 48 but we were so blessed that it was contained and they were able to get it all. We felt that surely 2005 would be a better year for us. But again, it was just the CALM before the STORM.
Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29, 2005. I was locked in the Gulfport facility during the storm with my husband, children, dogs and in-laws hunkered down at our residence. This one 24 hour period forever changed my life! The facility was 24 feet above sea-level and very, very well built. We were considered to be such a secure location with ability to generate electricity by generator and water from a well, that Jim Cantore and the Weather Channel stayed with us during the storm. Needless to say, Hurricane Katrina thought differently and by 8 AM that morning we were walking in 2 inches of water. The Gulf of Mexico was beating at our feet! The rising surge caused the generators to flood out so there we were....120 staff/family and 450 residents in total darkness. Because it was breakfast time most every one was on the first floor when the power went out and the generators flooded so we had to evacuate everyone UP via stair wells.
HE revealed himself to me during the height of the storm and I suddenly felt so peaceful. I knew we would survive. By the next night I was on one of 9 buses filled with elderly residents and 2 staff members per bus...heading to where my NEW life would begin and to the time that THE ONE would announce its appearance!
I was diagnosed with fibrocystic breast disease when I was 32 years old. I went to the Susan Komen Center for Breast Cancer when I was 40 for a holistic evaluation. At that time my risk for breast cancer was thought to be about the same as any woman, despite my mother having died from the disease.
I always thought the left breast would be the one to develop cancer. The Butt sisters lived in that breast. They were 3 BIG cysts that would fill up with fluid, lock their butts together and just have a good old time. They had to be drained several times and the only way the middle sister could get rid of her fluid was for them to insert the needle through the outside sisters to get to her. I kept many a technician in stitches talking about the Butt Sisters.
But while I was entertaining the technicians the right breast was slowly cultivating THE ONE! The strange thing is that right after my mother died I found a very small lump in this location but the doctor could not feel it nor did any future testing reveal it until 2007. Could my mother have caused THE ONE to rear its head for a warning?
My life as a full time, working mother/wife kept me busy. By 2002 I had received several promotions and was now traveling between Washington, DC and Gulfport, MS working for the Armed Forces Retirement Home. My life was hectic but it was just the CALM before the STORM.
My husband was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in 2004. He had his prostate removed at the age of 48 but we were so blessed that it was contained and they were able to get it all. We felt that surely 2005 would be a better year for us. But again, it was just the CALM before the STORM.
Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29, 2005. I was locked in the Gulfport facility during the storm with my husband, children, dogs and in-laws hunkered down at our residence. This one 24 hour period forever changed my life! The facility was 24 feet above sea-level and very, very well built. We were considered to be such a secure location with ability to generate electricity by generator and water from a well, that Jim Cantore and the Weather Channel stayed with us during the storm. Needless to say, Hurricane Katrina thought differently and by 8 AM that morning we were walking in 2 inches of water. The Gulf of Mexico was beating at our feet! The rising surge caused the generators to flood out so there we were....120 staff/family and 450 residents in total darkness. Because it was breakfast time most every one was on the first floor when the power went out and the generators flooded so we had to evacuate everyone UP via stair wells.
HE revealed himself to me during the height of the storm and I suddenly felt so peaceful. I knew we would survive. By the next night I was on one of 9 buses filled with elderly residents and 2 staff members per bus...heading to where my NEW life would begin and to the time that THE ONE would announce its appearance!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)