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The Size of a Pea .....

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Just before Thanksgiving of 2011, I felt a small little lump about the size of a pea in between my nipple and armpit of my right breast. It concerned me but my insurance would not pay for an ultrasound until February, so I waited. Just before Christmas it was gone… I did not feel the little lump anymore. So I thought nothing of it. I never had any pain, soreness or anything in my breast.

February 13th of 2012 I went for my annual mammogram. I saw it on the screen and my heart sank.

Immediately after my mammogram, my doctor wanted to do an ultrasound. She said it could be a “cyst“ but wanted to make sure. So I had the ultrasound right then.

Unfortunately, it was not a cyst and she recommended that I schedule a biopsy ASAP because there was “something“ on the entire right side of that breast. I had the ultrasound two hours later.

Normally, they would retrieve eight samples but she got five good ones and felt that was enough.

I got my results 24 hours later… on Valentine’s Day. 

If I’d had an ultrasound as soon as I felt that small little lump, I probably would not be sharing this story. As it turned out, that little “pea sized“ lump was actually cancer but was contained inside a milk duct. Within the few weeks before disappearing it had grown aggressively, rupturing the milk duct, spreading through my entire breast and into the lymph nodes.

Since it was an aggressive type of cancer we immediately chose my oncology team and moved forward with treatment.

The next step after meeting my oncologist was a PET scan. Then a meeting with my plastic surgeon and my breast surgeon so that everyone would be on the same page with treatment.

I went through a series of educational classes to understand what my body would be going through before starting chemotherapy.

The order of my treatment was bilateral mastectomies, chemotherapy and radiation followed by 10 years of maintenance therapy. I have three years remaining. 

… It all started with one, tiny little lump the size of a pea.

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