D-Day: Four Years Ago Today
Today I am grateful for the chance to see my friend Jill last night. She is a spark in my life. I am also grateful to be a cancer survivor. I am thinking about that on this day especially because it is D-Day.
D-Day? Not THAT D-Day, my d-day. . .cancer diagnosis day, May 29, 2008. I had a MR-guided biopsy of my right breast on May 27 after a "normal" mammogram, a suspicious MRI, and a "normal" ultrasound in the weeks prior.
I was one sharp edge that day four years ago. I knew on the 28th I probably wouldn't hear anything and I didn't. But I awoke on the 29th knowing that I likely would hear something. (I appreciate that medical professionals know people who have had biopsies want to hear ASAP and they try to make that happen). It could be a huge relief or it could be the start of plenty of uncharted territory. I was hoping for the best, but had prepared myself. Realistically I knew it could be cancer, especially after two other sisters had already been diagnosed.
I went to work for the day and tried to stay close to my phone, but I missed my doctor's first call around noon. Then, I was in meetings until I headed home after 3:30. I called again on my cell and my doctor's nurse took my cell number and said my doctor would call me shortly. She did and I asked her "Should I pull over?" When she said "You probably should" I knew what the news was going to be. I pulled into a parking lot and was told that I had infiltrating ductal carcinoma as well as DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ).
Diagnosis in. Cancer journey begins.
I will be forever grateful to my own doctor and the radiologist who read my mammogram back in late April of 2008. Knowing my family history, and that I had dense breast tissue, they felt an MRI would be a good recommendation. MRI's were just starting to be used more for breast imaging in high risk women. That MRI is what found the "suspicious area" that was later biopsied and found to be cancer. If my doctor hadn't made that recommendation, I may have gone a year or more before finding out I had breast cancer. Scary thought.
But a known diagnosis is a scary thought of a different kind. What a journey!
I am so grateful that four years later 1) I am here. 2) I am healthy and living life fully.
Did breast cancer change my life? Undoubtedly! But I still have life and that is what I try to not take for granted. In the four years since my diagnosis, well over 150,000 other women and men in this country have died of breast cancer. Grateful to be here. Trying not to forget that all any of us have is today. Make the most of it.
D-Day? Not THAT D-Day, my d-day. . .cancer diagnosis day, May 29, 2008. I had a MR-guided biopsy of my right breast on May 27 after a "normal" mammogram, a suspicious MRI, and a "normal" ultrasound in the weeks prior.
I was one sharp edge that day four years ago. I knew on the 28th I probably wouldn't hear anything and I didn't. But I awoke on the 29th knowing that I likely would hear something. (I appreciate that medical professionals know people who have had biopsies want to hear ASAP and they try to make that happen). It could be a huge relief or it could be the start of plenty of uncharted territory. I was hoping for the best, but had prepared myself. Realistically I knew it could be cancer, especially after two other sisters had already been diagnosed.
I went to work for the day and tried to stay close to my phone, but I missed my doctor's first call around noon. Then, I was in meetings until I headed home after 3:30. I called again on my cell and my doctor's nurse took my cell number and said my doctor would call me shortly. She did and I asked her "Should I pull over?" When she said "You probably should" I knew what the news was going to be. I pulled into a parking lot and was told that I had infiltrating ductal carcinoma as well as DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ).
Diagnosis in. Cancer journey begins.
I will be forever grateful to my own doctor and the radiologist who read my mammogram back in late April of 2008. Knowing my family history, and that I had dense breast tissue, they felt an MRI would be a good recommendation. MRI's were just starting to be used more for breast imaging in high risk women. That MRI is what found the "suspicious area" that was later biopsied and found to be cancer. If my doctor hadn't made that recommendation, I may have gone a year or more before finding out I had breast cancer. Scary thought.
But a known diagnosis is a scary thought of a different kind. What a journey!
I am so grateful that four years later 1) I am here. 2) I am healthy and living life fully.
Did breast cancer change my life? Undoubtedly! But I still have life and that is what I try to not take for granted. In the four years since my diagnosis, well over 150,000 other women and men in this country have died of breast cancer. Grateful to be here. Trying not to forget that all any of us have is today. Make the most of it.
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