I had a lump

I wrote the other day that one of the things that happened within the past year is that 2 of my new mother-in-laws passed away.  The first one, DH's real mom, was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer just a few days before our wedding.  When she went to the hospital, it was obvious that the cancer had spread to her bones because she broke a bone in her arm (or maybe it was her shoulder) just by climbing into bed.  Within a week and a half, she past away.  No one will ever know if she knew she had breast cancer, and for how long, but she never said anything about it to anyone.  My thought is that she didn't want to do anything about it, and if she told her family, she would be pressured to go through chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

After my first husband died of colon cancer, I had made up my mind that if I ever got cancer, I wouldn't go through all of that.  His quality of life didn't seem very good, and although it gave him an extra year of life, he went through so much.  But, things I say "I'll never" to, usually change very quickly under the right circumstances.  A couple of weeks after my wedding, and after my mother-in-law passed away, I found a lump.  I was pretty sure that it was nothing because I was very good about going for yearly mammograms, but I immediately made an appointment with my gynecologist, just to be safe.  I didn't want to wait another 2 to 3 months until my yearly exam.  I know so many people who are of the mindset that if they ignore it, maybe it will go away.  Knowing me, I would be out of my mind with worry, because, not knowing is so much harder than knowing - no matter what the outcome.

First, I went to my gynecologist, who confirmed there were a few lumps, actually, and she set up an appointment for me to have a mammogram and an ultrasound.  She said, chances were that it was just some cysts, so not to worry.  I went through the mammogram and the technician said that I was full of cysts.  I went from there to the ultrasound where the technician said the same thing.  She didn't see any cancer, just cysts.  After the appointment, I was to wait while she sent the film to a radiologist to look over.  They discussed it briefly over the phone.  She came out to the waiting room and told me the radiologist thought they looked like cysts, also.  I took that as the final word on the matter and didn't think any more about it.

To be continued ...

(This is the first post in a series about my breast cancer.  I hope they are helpful to others going through the same thing.  To find additional posts I've written on breast cancer, click here.)