It came as no surprise when my GP called and confirmed that I had Stage 2 locally evasive breast cancer. At my annual visit, my Doctor insisted I have a diagnostic mammogram because he felt a lump in my right breast. He had felt a lump the year prior but a mammogram then did not show anything. The Specialist who read the results said the area looked suspicious so I was scheduled for an ultrasound guided biopsy. The attending Physician for the biopsy let me view the screen as the technition worked and pointed out the spots on the screen so I could see the the cloudy spots and even see the needle go in and grab a sample.

Ouch! Even with a local anesthetic that smarted. The Doctor was very candid and said she was almost 100% sure we were seeing cancer there. I was able to ask lots of questions about breast cancer, surgery and reconstruction. She was very informative and helpful. My husband was very upset with this information but both of us were then prepared for the official diagnosis.

I was referred to an Oncology team consisting of a Cancer Surgeon and Oncologist. We met with the surgeon and discussed the options or choices I needed to make. Because the cancer was close to the chest wall and had spread he recommended a mastectomy of the affected breast. He explained that I could elect to have surgery just to remove the cancer and then have reconstruction a year later or have a team including a plastic surgeon who would take over after the cancer was removed to insert implants or skin expanders and close.

Not only did I feel very strongly about the later but asked if I could choose to remove the healthy breast at the same time? I really did not want to go through a year of recovery; chemo and radiation and then have to repeat it in a year or two on the other breast. The fact that I had cancer in one was enough for me to want to avoid any future risk. Some chance of reoccurrence is always possible but why stack the odds against myself? Besides, the idea of having one breast was more disturbing to me than having none. I wanted to match regardless of the condition.