Introduction

Hi All,

Sorry for delivering this via email but I have discovered that I am such a fortunate person to have so many close friends whom I love that it's just not possible for me to talk to everyone in person with all this information. So, here is the synopsis.

For those if I haven't talked to you in a few days, my biopsy did come back Friday positive for breast cancer - both DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ) and IDC (infiltrating ductal carcinoma). Today I went to kaiser and had more mammograms done and met with my breast specialist to come up with a plan. She said my type of cancer is grade 2 (range is 1-3) which means it is a medium-aggressive cancer, however, any cancer that shows up in a 28 year old is and should be treated as an aggressive cancer. They don't have a stage for it yet, as that will depend on the results of an MRI I will get later this week (determined by size of tumor and if it has spread to lymph nodes under the arm). She is recommending that I start immediately with chemotherapy - final chemo plan will depend on a meeting with the oncologist, but probably 4 months of infusions every 2 weeks.

She is also recommending a skin-sparing mastectomy on the side of my left breast to entirely remove the tumor and remaining breast tissue as the tumor is fairly large. I will get reconstruction done afterward, but will have to meet with a plastic surgeon closer to the time of surgery to get details about reconstruction. After my meeting with her they took a bunch of blood to do a full blood workup on me, and over the next week I will get an MRI, CT scan, bone scan and MUGA scan as well as meet with my oncologist. After my oncologist meeting, I will start chemo. After I finish chemo they will do surgery and go from there. In my mastectomy surgery, she will also remove some lymph nodes and have them tested to make sure it has not spread. There is the possibility of radiation also after surgery if the MRI from next week comes back with the tumor over 5cm or more than 3 lymph nodes are found to have cancer tissue. She is hoping to avoid radiation though.

I am doing ok right now but honestly overwhelmed with the amount of information I have to learn and get well versed in, fast. I am still somewhat in shock since as far as I know, it is not in my family and I am very young. I do feel very confident with my doctor, so far she has been fantastic - my surgeon is Dr. Samantha Langer (Kaiser SF) and my oncologist will be Dr. Raymond Liu (also Kaiser SF).

Love you all and thank you for all the well wishes and support - please keep sending them along even if I don't respond immediately, I still love you all and very much appreciate it, just trying to take care of all the necessities first.

Love,
Amy