And so it begins...

After finding a lump in March of 2024 I scheduled an appointment with my provider. I was not concerned in the slightest and she really wasn’t either, we both thought it was a cyst. But I was referred for a diagnostic mammogram just to be sure.

I walked into that mammogram appointment in high spirits, I’d gotten out of work for the afternoon. I joked with the technician, even when the pain was intense, that should have been my first clue that something was different.  See I’d had a cyst removed back in 2011 from that same breast, so I was supremely confident that I had nothing to worry about.  The radiologist read my mammogram immediately and sent me to ultrasound, again I wasn’t concerned. I joked with the technician again and thought about what to make for supper.  The technician stepped out and brought the Radiologist into the room.  He sat down and proceeded to show me the blood flow going into the mass, he told me this was consistent with tumors, I also had masses in my lymph nodes.  My brain went numb, there was no history of breast cancer in my family, and my mom has cancer not me, all raced through my brain. The radiologist kindly told me that he needed to do a biopsy, but he was positive I had breast cancer.

I only shed a few tears as I left the hospital that day, I was already starting to think about my fight plan. I got the call on Good Friday confirming that I had breast cancer.  A few days later my husband and I met with one of my oncologists, where we learned I had Triple Negative Breast Cancer, and I was at Stage 3. She also confirmed this is the worst kind to get, and I thought “go big or go home”. The next two weeks were full of scans, from MRIs, CTs, to an Echo so we could get all the baseline readings.  Then I finally was able to get my port placed, and luckily all scans were free of cancer so I remained at Stage 3.

After all this I was ready to fight and fight hard. I was looking at 6 months of chemo, then radiation, and finally surgery.  So this is how I went from being my mom’s caregiver to needing to be cared for.