Thursday, August 11th I was in bed watching TV with Tony. I had an itch on my right breast. While scratching it I felt a bump. I hadn't felt a bump in my breast before so I was a little worried, but really thought it would be nothing. I talked with several friends about it and all of them encouraged me to get to the Dr. just to be safe. There isn't history of breast cancer in my family so I wasn't too worried, but did want to be safe.
Monday, August 15th I called my Dr and I got an appointment for Wednesday, the 17th at 2:15. I went to that appointment and my Dr. confirmed that the lump was there and should be further investigated. She said I have dense breast and most likely it is just "lumpy breasts" but you just can never be too sure.
I was given an appointment to have a mammogram at the Women's Center on Thursday, August 25th at 9:40.
Thursday, August 25th. I arrived at the Women's Center at 9:10 as requested to fill out paperwork. Still at this time pretty sure that I have "lumpy breast" and was going to leave within the hour to go back to work and talk about how bad it hurt when they squished my breast between the plates to check it out. It was my first mammogram and all I heard was how much it hurt.
The process was amazing. The mammogram tech (Patsy) was very informative, gentle and very nice. She explained everything so well. She gave me information on breast exams..the works. I had several mammograms done. She took so many pics of my right breast. I was getting concerned. She told me the lump was for sure something. She showed me how it had a definite line around it. She thought it was a cyst.
I was a little concerned, but had heard that most cysts aren't malignant. Once the pictures of my breast were taken she would take them to the Dr. and he would review them to see if more pictures were needed. He spotted white dots on my left breast. I had to get more pictures of that side so they could get a closer look to see if the dots were clustered. I guess if they were clustered it would be a concern for cancer. Wow. I was on an emotional roller coaster. After taking a closer look, the dots were not clustered and I was relieved.
We now were back to checking the lump on my right side. They moved me on to get an ultra sound done. Approximately 60 pictures were captured during the ultrasound. The ultrasound tech (Ellen) told me that if there was anything to be concerned about that I would hear from them today otherwise to be sure that I call my doctor's office Tuesday if I hadn't heard anything.
I left a bit concerned, but really thought it was just a cyst and it would all be okay. It was 11:29am when I was on my way back to the office I received a call from my Dr. She told me that I needed to get a biopsy done. The Dr. reviewed the ultrasound pics and was concerned. She assured me that they just like to be thorough as this isn't something to take seriously. As I was talking to her I received the call from the Women's Center. I clicked over and talked to the lady. She told me that I needed to be back at the Women's Center by 1:30 and that I needed a list of my medications and to plan to be there awhile.
It was then that it hit me and I cried. I cried a lot. I wanted to stay positive, but I couldn't help but think of what was going to happen.
I went back to the office and tried to work. It was useless. My friend Starla and I went to the appointment. I got to see the Dr. at 2:30 and he said that the mass in my breast was hard and needed to be removed. It wasn't a cyst and I needed an biopsy.
They did the prep and I had an ultra sound core biopsy. It was very interesting to watch. They numbed my right breast and took out like 5 worm like pieces out of my breast. Everyone was so friendly and comforting. The incision was small enough that I didn't need a stitch. They applied 10 minutes of pressure and then put suture tape on it. They did another mammogram to be sure they cored out the right area. They had also placed a small piece of something into the area so it would show up on future mammograms to mark the area. I had another ultra sound done under my right arm checking the lymph nodes one more time.
I was sent home. The time was close to 5pm. I got Starla back to the office by 4:50 and I went to see Tony. I was told to take it easy all weekend and not to use my right arm.
I was given a card with Dr. Cox's number on it and told to call it Monday right before noon to get the results.
