In the April 2023, I requested an appointment with my OBGYN (who is actually an APRN) because I found a lump in my left breast. It was small, moved around, and wasn’t super hard. The OBGYN and her assistant (not sure on if she was a nurse), both agreed it was nothing.
 
Fast forward to July/August 2023. At this point, I had started having symptoms that were consistent with mastitis (even though I hadn’t breast fed or pumped in 2 years). Sore breast, swollen, discoloration, warm to the touch, hardening in various spots on my breast, random sharp pains, and my breast had grown quite a bit. I went back in to my OBGYN and she did another exam. She agreed that I needed a more in depth look so I got a mammogram and ultrasound scheduled.
 
At this point, I was still pretty sure that it was just a cyst or something along those lines. Side note: earlier in 2023, I had a pilar cyst removed from my scalp and a lipoma removed from my leg. I figured it was something along those lines because they both came back benign.
 
August 10th 2023, I went in for my first mammogram and ultrasound. I was only 38 so I hadn’t had one done yet. After both of those were done, the radiologist (doctor) that was on call, came down and told me that I needed to get a biopsy scheduled. I asked what we were looking at and he flat out told me “more than likely it’s cancer”.
 
I completely lost it while walking out of the hospital. There was a woman and her 3-4 year old girl in the elevator with me. I just started sobbing after seeing them. When I got out of the elevator, the woman said “Excuse me? Would you like a hug?” This poor woman hugged me for a good minute and I told her about the cancer. She said to me “you have a young daughter, don’t you?” and I thought about my kids, Hunter and Maddie, and lost it even more. Then she said “you’ll beat this”. We separated and I walked to my car and called Brian hysterically crying (poor Brian was on his way home from a field exercise… on a bus… with a bunch of other dudes). After that, I sat in the car and messaged a couple close friends and called my parents. Everyone said not to worry yet as the diagnosis wasn’t final till after the biopsy. That day, I asked Brian to take me to the Hard Rock pool and we spent the day getting me drunk so that I didn’t have to cope right away. I wanted to be distracted. Hey, hold the judgement, everyone copes differently!
 
I scheduled an appt for (what I thought was) a biopsy for August 16th. It turns out that it was only a consultation with the doctor, not a biopsy. I was pretty upset because at this point it had already been a week with no answers. She ended up taking a skin punch biopsy that day, but we didn’t do the full biopsy. The result came back benign (YAY!). It was great news but also very confusing.
 
So they finally scheduled a biopsy for me on August 25th, 15 days after my original mammogram. They took 4 samples each from two different masses (one in my breast and the other in my lymph node). I had a total of 3 masses/tumors/whatever you want to call them.
 
The biopsy results FINALLY posted on Monday, August 28th, 2023. The left breast mass biopsy read positive for “high grade invasive mammary carcinoma”. The left axillary (armpit) lymph node biopsy read “positive for metastatic carcinoma”. My skin biopsy came back benign so it hasn’t spread to the skin yet, but has spread to the lymph nodes.
 
I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. My treatment so far has consisted of:
-Chemo (TCHP) for 16 weeks
-Double mastectomy
-Radiation for 6 weeks

I also developed stage 3 lymphedema in my left arm. 

I recently had my gallbladder removed and the gastric sleeve done. 

Next year I will be getting breast reconstruction. 

It’s been a wild year! I’m still doing treatment for my lymphedema and I’m still getting one chemo drug every 3 weeks till December (Kadcyla-to prevent reoccurrence). 

I’m lucky to have such a supportive husband and family to get through this. Now I would like to pay it forward by raising money to help others with breast cancer!