Just the other day I was posting to the social networks that I’d just realized that I’d passed the five-year mark since my original breast cancer diagnosis in 2007, and was closing in on five years since I’d been pronounced cancer-free and had commenced reconstruction surgery. (All that got started in 2008, until everything was finished off in 2009.)
I’d just had my latest mammogram this past week, and was expecting it to be routine. They’ve been having me in for regular mammograms ever since the 2007-2009 excitements, and they’ve been keeping a really, really sharp eye on me in general.
Which means that when they see things like new calcifications in a mammogram, this trips all their alarms.
Calcifications in the breast, for those of you who don’t know, are one of the very early warning indicators of breast cancer. They are in fact what got me started on the first round of fun, with my first mammogram back in 2007. Apparently now I have some new ones–this time on the left side.
They are very tiny, only 3mm in size. But the fact that they’re there at all, given my history, is suspicious. So the team at Evergreen has scheduled me for a biopsy next week to see if they can get a better look at them. Since the calcifications in question are so tiny, however, a biopsy might not even work. In that event, we punt to Plan B–sending me to the same surgeon I worked with before, who’d take out the suspicious area. The biopsy is scheduled for Monday. The backup surgeon visit is scheduled for Tuesday.
And Wednesday is my birthday. Which means I get a biopsy for my birthday. And another possible round of DCIS, depending on how this goes. I don’t mind telling you, Internets, I’m really nervous about this, because really not in the mood to do this again.
All good thoughts, crossed fingers, prayers, lit candles, fluffy small cute creatures, awesome bouzouki players, podorythmic fiddle players, or crack ninja assassin teams to take out whatever gnomes have dedicated themselves to taking over what’s left of my breasts would be most appreciated. If I have to do this again, though, at least this time my choices will be much clearer. If there’s anything going on on the left, we’ll be going straight to mastectomy.
More bulletins as events warrant.
