Initial Doctor's Appointment

I left work early to make it back to Rowlett for the 3:50 appointment. My OB/GYN saw me. She was dressed up like a flapper girl for Halloween and looked so cute. She asked me if I could show her where the lump was. I told her that she could just touch my breast and find it herself. She touched my right breast and said "Oh." She then asked me to raise my arms. She got a measuring tape and came back and measured the area and used an ink pen and made some marks on that breast.

She said it was probably a cyst or milk duct that had filled up with fluid and would need to be drained with a needle aspiration, but that we needed to do a sonogram to see if it was fluid or solid. She was concerned because it had come up so quickly and was so large given that I had had a clean health bill in May. They scheduled me for a sonogram at Lake Pointe Medical Center for 11-2-06 at 3 p.m.

I came home and told David what was being done. We were both still thinking at this time, that it was probably just a fluid buildup.

Making the Appointment

I called my OB/GYN and told them I needed to make an appointment because I had found a large mass in my right breast. They got me in for 3:50 on Tuesday, the 31st. Halloween. How fitting.

Peggy Calls With Her News

Peggy, my sister-in-law and best friend from high school, called late Sunday night to let us know that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Peggy hadn't had a mammogram in a few years and she got a notecard in the mail telling her that the mobile unit would be in Spur and she decided to go have one done. She got a call telling her that there were problems with her mammogram, but then discovered that it was the wrong person they were calling. After that however, Peggy received her call telling her that there was a spot on her mammogram that she needed to see about. She had gone to her doctor on Friday, the 27th in Lubbock and the doctor removed the lump that day.

I cried and told her how sorry I am and hung up with her and told David. We were in shock.

Life as I Knew It BC (Before Cancer)

Thursday, October 19, 2006 was no different than most days. I got in bed that night and did a breast self-exam, which I've always done about every 2 weeks for years. I've always had large breasts full of little fibroid cysts, so OB/GYNs have always advised me to do self-exams. But that night was different than all the exams prior. That night I found this huge mass in my right breast. At first I thought I must have hurt myself and wondered how in the world I didn't remember the assault that would have caused this swelled up place. Then I remember thinking that surely I was just wrong and made the familiar circle motion again with my fingers. No doubt about it, something was definitely there. When David came to bed, I asked him to feel of it. He did and said if I thought it was something, to go see my doctor. And we both read a while and then went to sleep.

That weekend we went to Kyle to watch our grandson, Nikita, play soccer. He scored 3 goals! Tony was his coach. Tony borrowed a smoker from some friends, and smoked some brisket, ribs and pork tenderloin. YUM!!! Kelly & Tami and the girls came up from San Antonio Saturday to watch the game and to eat, too. It was a fun, food-filled day. We came back home to Rowlett Sunday night.

Neither David or me talked about the mass coming home and didn't say anything to the kids because, well, because we were sure it was nothing. I had had a clean pap test and a clean mammogram on 5-2-06 and this was only October.