Let me catch you up....
9/19/12 was a whirlwind of emotions, as you can imagine. I dropped everything and rushed to pick my wife up to go find out more information from her gynecologist. On the way to pick her up, I thought about how she must be feeling because I know that I was SCARED AS HELL and just wanted to see her ASAP. Once I picked her up the tears started flowing......and she cried too. Our conversation on the way to the doctor's office was a blur of tears, anxiety, fear, and dread for what we were going to hear from the MD. I reassured her that she would not fight this battle alone and that I would be there every step of the way. I meant it and she knew it.
Her Gynecologist explained that 1 in 8 women will have Breast Cancer and she happened to be one of the unfortunate ones. Hers was diagnosed as Infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma. The doctor explained that while she could provide us with basic information, she would placing a surgical consult ASAP to determine what surgery would be recommended. It wasn't all bad news though, her Cancer was Estrogen/Progesterone receptive--GOOD and no evidence of lymph node involvement--GOOD. However, we would have to wait for the results of the HER2 which determines the aggressiveness of the cancer and will rule out certain treatments if it was POSITIVE. NOW MORE WAITING.....
On the way home from the MD visit, we discussed strategies on how and when we/she would tell our 7 year old son the basics of what was going on. She had already told him about the biopsy and having some "bad tissue" checked out, but this was going to be a lot harder conversation.....we decided to hold off until we ourselves had better and more accurate information. We picked him up from school and finished the evening as we normally do....bath time for the boy, reading books before bed, prayers, and hugs and kisses goodnight.
She cried in the shower. I knew that she needed time to process everything and that it would surely involve many more tearful times....I just reassured her that everything would be OK and that I loved her. If she ever needed me.....it's now.
I stayed up until 2 a.m. researching and educating myself on Breast Cancer reading other women's experiences. Boy, talk about eye opening and scary, but I quickly saw that it was not as simple as doing a GOOGLE search--we would have to wait for the Surgical appointment and the other lab work results.
I'm not very good at waiting......
Her Gynecologist explained that 1 in 8 women will have Breast Cancer and she happened to be one of the unfortunate ones. Hers was diagnosed as Infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma. The doctor explained that while she could provide us with basic information, she would placing a surgical consult ASAP to determine what surgery would be recommended. It wasn't all bad news though, her Cancer was Estrogen/Progesterone receptive--GOOD and no evidence of lymph node involvement--GOOD. However, we would have to wait for the results of the HER2 which determines the aggressiveness of the cancer and will rule out certain treatments if it was POSITIVE. NOW MORE WAITING.....
On the way home from the MD visit, we discussed strategies on how and when we/she would tell our 7 year old son the basics of what was going on. She had already told him about the biopsy and having some "bad tissue" checked out, but this was going to be a lot harder conversation.....we decided to hold off until we ourselves had better and more accurate information. We picked him up from school and finished the evening as we normally do....bath time for the boy, reading books before bed, prayers, and hugs and kisses goodnight.
She cried in the shower. I knew that she needed time to process everything and that it would surely involve many more tearful times....I just reassured her that everything would be OK and that I loved her. If she ever needed me.....it's now.
I stayed up until 2 a.m. researching and educating myself on Breast Cancer reading other women's experiences. Boy, talk about eye opening and scary, but I quickly saw that it was not as simple as doing a GOOGLE search--we would have to wait for the Surgical appointment and the other lab work results.
I'm not very good at waiting......
RSS Feed