Diagnosis, what a word!

September 22nd, 2011

Let’s try this again now that I seem to have a bit more usage in my right arm and full functionality of my right fingers!  Two days before my daughter’s 8th birthday on August 12th 2010, I received the news that would forever change mine and my family’s lives.  At the age of 33, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Oh and not just any old run of the mill breast cancer either, because as you will come to know me, you will find out I don’t do anything half-assed, lol.  Turns out I was fortunate to have two different kinds of breast cancer located within the same breast.  When I say fortunate, in this case I honestly mean it.  I had Invasive Ductal Carcinoma (IDC) as well as Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) in the same right breast and if it wasn’t for my IDC I may have had to undergo the same run around that I constantly hear about from other women that is so disadvantaging in this disease.  A day’s delay in diagnosis is huge in the world of IBC.

My symptoms of IDC (the lump) actually started when I was 32 years old, let me repeat that, 32 YEARS OLD.  Recommended age to begin screening for yearly mammograms begins at age 40.  I was diagnosed with fibrocystic breast disease when I was 17, so lumpy, bumpy, painful, swollen breasts were not an uncommon occurrence to me.  This gave me a false sense of security that it was nothing more than a fibroid, especially since the lump “appeared” right before a menstrual cycle.  My little friend made herself known about two months after I had lost my job as an HR Director and for the first time in over 10 years found myself without health insurance.  As always, my timing was impeccable, lol.

I should probably shift a gear or so back about here as well in my story telling to add some additional insight and to help me emphasize the most important aspect of all of this as well.  If there is one thing I have learned through all of this, you know your body best, please listen carefully to it!!  For several months leading up to my job loss I had been having unspecified health issues.  Everything ranging from terrible fatigue, upset stomach, headaches, you name it.  It was driving me and everyone around me crazy.  I was going to the doc when I needed to and I had also gone in to have my hormone, thyroid, and basic blood tests to try and figure out what was going on with me.  Nothing, so I chalked it up to stress.  Work at the time sucked.  Everyone was just waiting for the layoffs to begin knowing that they were coming eventually.  I had gone back to school a few months earlier in anticipation of loosing my job.  So stress seemed like the likely culprit.  I should have listened to my body, something was definitely going on.