Liz

It started with soreness under my left arm. First, I didn’t think much of it, and I never thought it would be breast cancer. Each year when I get my mammogram, they would print out a report which would read something like “you are 4% likely to get breast cancer”. Doctor’s appointments they would ask if breast cancer runs in your family, and it doesn’t. I had just turned 44, healthy, slim and I eat a lot of fruits and veggies.
I go see a nurse practitioner about this lump under my arm and she says, “Oh it’s probably nothing but we’re going to send you to get an ultrasound”. So, I go get an ultrasound and (I actually think I went that day) as soon as I got home from that appointment, the doctor’s office calls me and ask me if I can go get a mammogram. I have had my mammogram regularly since I was 38 and I wasn’t due for my mammogram yet. She tells me to head that way and she will call and make me an appointment. I go and have a mammogram (I pay extra to have the 3D mammogram). The doctor comes out and tells me he sees something, and that he will send my report to the doctor’s office. Before I got to my car in the doctor’s office, he called me and said, “I need you to go to North Kansas City Hospital to talk to a surgeon”. This was so overwhelming. At this point, I’ve gone from oh it’s probably nothing, to we see something and you need to go see a surgeon. I went to the surgeon, and I had a biopsy and a PET scan. He told me that I had triple negative breast cancer invasive ductal carcinoma stage 2, the aggressive markers were all three. I had another appointment with the surgeon and I asked him if I could have a double mastectomy. He said, “As a doctor I have to tell you removing your right breast does not change your diagnosis on your left side, but as a person I understand why you want to do this”.
I had my double mastectomy April, 2016 on April Fool’s Day. I left the hospital the next day which was a Saturday. On Monday I called his office to talk about the fluid in my drainage cups and the nurse kind of made me feel like I was a dummy. Then, on Wednesday, I called his doctor’s office because my left arm was swollen really bad, and it was really hot. He was in surgery. A couple hours later he called me back, and as we were talking he says, “You called me today what’s going on?” I explain to him what was going on and he said, “It’s not that you have a blood clot, but let me tell you the reason I called”, he said, “Pathology came back and you have you had cancer in your right breast as well, and you’re triple positive on your right side.”
Lord have mercy! I called a friend to take me to the hospital because of my arm. I got there and the gal that’s doing the test called in another person, and asked the doctor to come in because another person came in and said, “I just want to make sure I see what I think I see.” I had a DVT in my arm and also in my neck. The guy that was doing the test was kind of freaking out, and she says, “They’re probably going to keep you in the hospital,” but I went back upstairs to see the surgeon and he said, “I’m going to put you on some blood thinners. As you’re going to your car, you need to call the pharmacy and make sure they have this in stock because you do not need to be driving around Kansas City looking for this medicine.”

So, I went from a young healthy person to a person with triple negative breast cancer and also triple positive breast cancer and blood clots.

I started chemo May 2nd 2016, having what they call dense doses Okemo and I handled it pretty well. When I started the Herceptin, I would get an echo once a month, or every other month, and one time my EF dropped just a little bit when I went in to see the oncologist. She says “We’re done, go get your Port taken out, the risks no longer outweigh the benefits.” So, I did what I was told. After my port was taken out, I called my primary care physician and see if he wanted me to continue taking an aspirin that he put me on while I was on Herceptin. He says, “You need to go get a second opinion, and you need to see a cardiologist.” At first, I didn’t agree with him. But, a day or two later I called him and he sent me to see a cardiologist. The cardiologists said, “You are young, you are healthy, there is no reason to stop your Herceptin. From this report it says I’m going to call your primary care physician and we’re going to get you in to see somebody else.”

It took 6 weeks before I could see a new oncologist, but now I feel like I’m in better hands. She started that Herceptin, and since I no longer had a port, she sent me to get a PICC line. I received one dose of Herceptin, and that weekend I ended up in the emergency room because I had a blood clot. But that day at the emergency room, they did not see the blood clot. I need to say this this was on a Saturday. On Monday or Tuesday, I went back to the cancer center. The oncologist got to see my arm. She was surprised about the color and size of it, and she says, “You need to go back to the hospital and by the time you get there don’t know what to do but they’re going to take that pic line out.” So, then I had to wait I can’t remember how many weeks, 6 or 10 or so, before I can get a port put back in so I could continue on with my treatments. I was able to continue on with my treatments. Currently, I am on two chemo pills. 1 is the 5-year pill, the other is a new chemo pill for people who are HER2 positive. (You take this pill after you finish the Herceptin.)

This has been my journey. I still think about it every day. It took me a really long time before I could laugh, and I still cry about it sometimes, but not every day. I can talk to some people about it, but not everyone. I want to be one of those people who can help somebody else, but I’m just not there yet.