Breast Cancer
Mammograms are a necessity of a woman’s life, I smiled, as the x-ray tech said these words to me. Because to me this was a hideous task. No woman ever wants to have a mammogram necessary or not, it’s just how it is. As I leaned in to see the image on the screen a slight tickling caught me off guard.
You see, if you’ve had a previous mammogram, they will have that on one screen as they bring up the new image on another screen. And I could see right away that there was no doubt, more mammograms were in my future. I was used to the calcium deposits showing up on my exams and this one was a lot of calcium.
Within a few days I was back at the imaging center having an ultra sound on my right breast. I wasn’t worried, per say, at the moment because, I knew that neither my Mom’s side of the family or my Dad’s side of the family had ever had breast cancer so, whatever the images were was most likely benign and a simple surgery would correct it. But that wasn’t the case for me. A few days later I was in the Drs office and I was being diagnosed with breast cancer.
At that point, it was a waiting game to find out what type of breast cancer I had. Estrogen fed, Progesterone fed or Her2Nu. I had never heard these terms before. I had no idea what to think. My mind as always went straight to “Google these terms” but, even as the thought entered my mind I heard the Dr saying, please don’t turn to Google for your questions. We are here to answer any and all questions that you have. We don’t want you in a state of panic or confusion by trying to do your own research. Really? I was confused and panicked already and I had no idea what questions to even ask. I remember asking, how I was capable of getting breast cancer when no one in my immediate or extended family had ever had it? It is hereditary right? I mean I’ve heard that all my adult life. And the answer they gave me was? We don’t know. Really? I made an appt for a biopsy before I left and had it scheduled within three days.
So home I went and the first thing I did was….. yep, Google breast cancer. I did try to stay on the cancer.org website. I learned that Estrogen fed was simply a hormone that can cause cancer and progesterone fed was basically the same. Her2nu I didn’t understand.
As it turned out a week and a half later the Dr called me and asked me to come in test results were back and they wanted to discuss them. I immediately called my life buddy Joe ( hes my best friend, confidant and the one I knew I wanted to share life with the moment I agreed to a first date. More about him later.)and he said he would be here right away to pick me up and go with me so I didn’t go alone.
In the office, I was a scared mess. Noel the Drs assistant, was in with us and assured us everything would be fine no matter the results of the tests. When the Dr came in and sat across from us he looked at me and spoke the most heart stopping words I can ever remember receiving. The test results were negative of all three most common types of breast cancer. It’s not Estrogen, progesterone or Her2Nu. That means you have what is called triple negative breast cancer. Now, mind you I went down the Google rabbit hole, even though they said not to. I knew the words he just spoke were absolutely, not good. As he went on to further explain he suddenly paused and said Ms. Eidson are you ok? I shook my head yes, no, yes…and started crying. I was uncontrollably crying and I never lose it in public, ever. Once I calmed down, he told me that googling this cancer would scare me and he didn’t advise it. I said it was too late because I read about it while googling the three most common types and now I’m scared to death. Noel came over and hugged me and said Honey, your going to be alright just trust us. I looked into her eyes and knew right away, I could trust her.
She made me an appt with the best Oncologist on the East Coast and the next part as they say, is to be cont’d.