My diagnosis in April 2011

To sum up my breast cancer diagnosis and treatment thus far:

I found a lump while in the shower on April 2, just a few hours after I ran my very first 5K with my fiance. After multiple weeks and tests, it was confirmed I had DCIS - Ductal Carcinoma in Situ with both invasive and non-invasive cancer cells. I had a right skin-sparing mastectomy on May 19 with three lymph nodes removed. The lymph nodes came back negative (thank goodness), and the surgery confirmed my cancer was JUST DCIS - meaning no invasive cancer was found.

It was in a very early stage and non-invasive, so my doctors told me that the surgery "got it all" and no additional treatment was recommended.

I had a tissue expander put in during the surgery, and have had it gradually filled with saline over these past few weeks to grow new skin and muscle. A few weeks ago I found out that although all of my breast tissue was removed during surgery, the margin - or area surrounding the tumor the doctors take out to prevent recurrence and get rid of any remaining cancer cells - was too close to the skin, so radiation would be needed. Not long after my consult with the radiation oncologist, in which I found out I would need radiation 5 days a week for 6 weeks, my doctor said she had found another way to remove the margin without giving me radiation. The goal was to not radiate me, she said, because I was so young and there are so many complications associated with it. Her other option was to take more skin. This would mean having another surgery in which my tissue expander would be "deflated." They would take more skin and then sew me back up, keeping the expander in. After my surgery I would have to "re-expand" to grow additional skin, and then a few months later, after my expander was completely full, could have my exchange surgery, which means the expander would be replaced with a silicone implant on my mastectomy side, and I'd have another implant put in on my other side for symmetry. The doctor gave ME the decision to either have the surgery or the radiation. I decided, along with my mom and fiance, that I would choose the surgery; I wanted to avoid radiation if I could, knowing my cancer history and the small chance radiation could result in another cancer later down the road.

This is all just the medical explanation. This doesn't even begin to dip into the emotional and physical pain I've been dealing with since the surgery, but I'm hoping my blog will get a little more into that as I write more. So, there you go!