Poof! I have the c-word

Here's my timeline...

8/9/11                   I came back from an amazing trip to Israel, nice and relaxed.

8/10/11                I took the day off work to recuperate. Instead, I spent the day trying to get my A/C fixed.

8/11/11                A/C still broken

8/14/11                Jason flies to Philly for the JCC Maccabi games.

8/15/11                My 1^st full week back at work. Came home and decided that I really need to get back to working out. I went to go put on my sports bra and there it was…the marble. I call it the marble because that’s exactly what the lump in my breast felt like. Size, texture, everything. Oddly, enough, I didn’t panic. I just knew that’s what it was. (Abba’s sister, my paternal aunt, passed away from the disease when she was 34.)

8/16/11                My amazing gynecologist, Dr. Amy Sonnenblick, immediately sees me and confirms it’s exactly what I suspect it is. She immediately books me for a mammogram and breast ultrasound. I call my parents and break the news to them.

8/17/11                Mom, Abba and I arrive bright and early to the Women’s Center at the Boca Raton Community Hospital.  I get my first ever mammogram (yes, it’s true, your boobs totally feel like a flat pita after being handled by the mammo machine) and my first ever breast ultrasound (I felt like the ultrasound tech used an entire bottle of what felt like lube) on my boobs.

                                The radiologist (Dr. Maria Velasquez) confirms it is what it is. C-word.  (I’m not really ready yet to say the actual words.)

8/18/11                I am lucky enough to get an appointment with a top breast surgeon, Dr. Phyllis Neimark, who reviews my mammo and ultrasound and confirms it’s…the c-word. My parents and I ask her whether there’s any chance this could be a benign cyst or anything of the sort. “I’d be very, very, very surprised if it’s anything other than what it is.” She orders me for a biopsy, MRI and genetic testing for the BRCA gene.

8/19/11                Jason returns from Philly. I cry for the 1^st time in his arms. What if I lose my boobs? What if I lose my hair? It felt good to vocalize my fears.

8/22/11                My first breast biopsy. Whoever tells you it’s not too painful is a big fat liar. “But didn’t they numb you?” Yes, well, when the 6-inch long needle used to insert the numbing agent has to be inserted into your lymph node buried deep inside your armpit, yea, it hurts. Did I mention it had to be slowly inserted since my suspect lymph node was right next to a blood vessel?

8/25/11                Got my 1^st official diagnosis. Stage 0 (non-invasive). Who knew there WAS a stage 0? Lymph nodes, thankfully, are not affected. However, go figure that both the breast radiologist and the breast surgeon think the diagnosis isn’t correct and that I have either Stage 1 or Stage 2. So, Dr. Neimark recommends I now need – in addition to Saturday’s MRI – another biopsy with an MRI. This time, I’m prescribed Valium for this MRI.

8/27/11                My first MRI

And so I wait….