Four more days until my surgery. The time is moving both fast and slow. I have been overjoyed by the outpouring of love and support from my family and friends over the last few days. It means more to me than you could ever imagine. For all of you followers and friends, here is a little background about my cancer. Why I now consider the number 3 not lucky for me and if I do ever buy a lottery ticket, the number 3 will not be a number chosen.
Strike one- my tumor is 3.2 cm in size. That is considered medium in size. It would be best if it was 2cm or smaller. But not me...go big or go home. This puts me in Stage II. My lymph node involvement is unknown at this time. That will be discovered during my surgery. The lymph nodes are very important to be clear of cancer.....chant "LYMPH NODES NO CANCER" 1000 times and maybe I will luck out.
Strike two- my cancer is Grade 3(there is that number I again). Grade 1 is happy, good cancer. Grade 3 is aggressive, fast growing cancer. BAD GRADE 3!!!!! Another reason I do not want lymph node involvement....
Strike three - this is the worst strike of all. When you consider my hormone receptor status, I came back estrogen, progesterone, and HER2 negative. One would think it was a good thing to be negative to hormone receptor site cancer....WRONG!!! I am in a category classified as "triple negative"(triple=3...that bad number again). Triple negative goes along with my young age, size, and grade of this aggressive cancer. I have listened to the recorded oncologist pathology consultation so many times. I was numb after he educated me about my cancer. It was worse than I thought. Triple negative is a new thing I had not heard of before. As my doctor said at the visit, this is the one time you would want a positive result on a cancer pathology. Triple negative means I fight harder.
This site can give you more information about triple negative breast cancer: www.tnbcfoundation.org
I may have 3 strikes, but I most definitely am not out. My surgery Friday will be a double mastectomy with reconstructive surgery included. The details of that I will go into later. My focus now is the surgery and praying so hard that my lymph nodes are not affected. I should only be in the hospital for 1-2 full days. Not that long, considering. I will be out of work for 8 weeks(one of those being vacation time). Before I come back to work, I will have already had 2 or 3 chemo doses under my belt. More on the chemo after the surgery. I can only handle one step at a time.
That is enough cancer talk for today. As promised, here is my positive for the day. When Tim and I came home from the Bama v. Ole Miss game Saturday, my mail included a lovely yellow slip from the government. That is right... on top of everything else I have been called to jury duty just 5 days after my surgery. Obviously I can't go to jury duty less than one week after surgery. At least I am now excused from jury duty....YEAH!!!!
Love you.
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