One year ago today…

From my 2022 archive:

It was exactly a year ago today when my breast surgeon who had performed my biopsy called to tell me that she was shocked, but that I indeed had breast cancer. The rest of the conversation was a bit of a blur. Words like hormone positive and HER-2 negative, which I didn’t comprehend then, but now know more than I ever wanted to.

Part of me is sad, and part of me is grateful that I’m still here. My course morphed into the unexpected based on the early findings. I initially made the decision to have a double mastectomy since I was trying to avoid radiation. I’m glad I did, since it turns out I had 2 additional small spots of cancer in addition to my main tumor. But needing chemo was the whammie. Turns out my tumor wasn’t HER-2 negative anymore by the time it came out. But I’m blessed it came out when it did based on how fast it was growing. My surgery date bounced back and forth a few times between early and late January. Thankfully, early January worked for both of my surgeons (oncologic and reconstructive). I’m pretty convinced that I might not have been as lucky if my surgery had been pushed back. Stage 2b is bad enough, but those few weeks could have allowed the cancer to spread to my lymph nodes. Yet another thing that I am immensely thankful for.

I’m incredibly grateful that my colleagues have connections that helped me have my surgery scheduled sooner rather than later. A few more weeks and my cancer might have spread into my lymph nodes and potentially even traveled to more distant sites.

I’m also in awe of the brave women (and men) before me who participated in clinical trials that got the medications that saved me onto the market. Even though I’m in the healthcare field, it still blows my mind that the medication that changed the course of HER2+ breast cancer, traztuzumab (Herceptin), has only been available in the U.S. since 1998!

If you’re feeling up to it and need a good cry (it’s a Lifetime movie, after all), watch the movie that is based on traztuzumab’s development, Living Proof. It’s available on several streaming serives.