My Story - Part 1

Happy Cancerversary to me!

Yep, it's been one whole year since my official diagnosis.

My journey has been shared in dribs and drabs with my feelings at the time but I thought I'd put my timeline all in one place from start, to present. Over the next few days I'm going to share everything, facts and all into several parts.

So here's how it all started...

I went to the GP after play fighting with my son which resulted in a bruise and caused me to notice a lump. When settled, the area became dimpled - almost like a dip in my chest so I was referred to the breast clinic for an ultrasound. The wait was about month, so we made the choice to go private for a consultation and we were seen within days.

Altogether, based on my ultrasound, three 3 centimetre lumps were found in my left breast - the dimpled area near my breast bone, another to the left of my breast and the final one was a lymph node in my arm pit. All areas were biopsied but even before the results had come back I was told to prepare and to stop breastfeeding then 3 month old Izzy. They knew what they were looking at. I was devastated. But that was just the beginning.

The biopsy confirmed my diagnosis and on the 16th August 2019 it was official. I have Invasive Ductal Breast Cancer with none of the hormones, therefore making it Triple Negative. Of course in that sense, I heard negative and thought it was a good thing - I mean something positive had to come out of this, all of the doctors seemed really confident I'd beat it and that breast cancer was 'one of the easiest to treat'.

Information Overload

I went on to find out that having TNBC wasn't a good thing for me as most treatments are targeted to the hormones that make the cancer grow, and I had none of them. Which in turn limits my treatment options. So the plan was to tackle it head on with chemotherapy, a lumpectomy or mastectomy and then on to radiotherapy.

Before starting chemo, I had to have a chest to pelvis CT scan to see what else we were looking at and a fourth lump was found underneath the same breast which was biopsied and confirmed as cancerous. The scan also showed small specks on one of my lungs which couldn't be biopsied but it was something that would continue to be monitored throughout treatment.

I was informed of all of the side effects, and even offered a clinical trial but I opted out of it as I knew it would take me away from the children. With Isobel being a teeny baby and Max was due to start state nursery, I just didn't want it. I wanted to try something I'd know for a fact would work when I was told there was a possibility I could beat this on the information that we had.