About my Breast Cancer

About 3 weeks ago I felt a growing mass in my right breast. At the time I had already scheduled an appointment for an annual exam with my doctor, so upon examination she ordered a diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound. They revealed a large suspicious mass and a biopsy was ordered. Last Wednesday, October 30th, I received the call that the results had come back and that it was indeed cancer, more specifically invasive ductal carcinoma. As far as they could tell the cancer is contained to the right breast only but is estrogen negative and HER2 positive in nature indicating an aggressive cancer requiring immediate attention.

The next Monday I met with a team of cancer specialists (a breast surgeon, medical oncologist and radiation oncologist) to discuss a treatment plan. They recommended chemotherapy every 3 weeks for 6 sessions and an ongoing immune therapy medication every 3 weeks for a year for the HER2 positive aspect of the cancer. They want to shrink the 4.1 cm tumor as much as possible before doing surgery so as to preserve the breast. Following surgery will be a further round of radiation to fully eradicate the cancer.

On Tuesday next week (Nov 12th) i go in for an ultrasound of my lymph glands in my armpits to confirm that the cancer has not spread there followed by a breast MRI to better assess the tumor.

Then, on Wednesday I go in for a central line/port to be placed in my chest for the extensive treatments that I will receive.

Finally, on Thursday (Nov 14th) in the morning I will begin my first round of chemotherapy which will last for 5 hours. It is unclear how my body will react. I am impressed with the advances they have made in helping with chemo side affects. While I am hoping for the best I am preparing for the worst. 🙂

14 Replies to “About my Breast Cancer”

  1. Love the hymn and the blog name!
    May you daily recognize His grace and may this part of your journey continue to bring Him glory.❤️

    Like

  2. Elin, you are in my prayers. I am sorry that you are going through this. I hope and pray that the treatment will be effective and successful. You are an amazing example of a Godly woman and servant! Stay positive!

    Like

  3. Elin, we are praying for you as you walk this valley. I have been impressed with the medical team working so hard, in a hurry.

    I have never had cancer, but, I am sure it is scary. Keep your faith and feel all the prayers!!

    Like

  4. I will pray the God uses this treatment for your healing and guides your doctors in all their decision making. I will also pray that their will be no medical mistakes or infections along the way. I pray God will give you and your family his great peace and that you will feel his love constantly until you are cured.

    Like

  5. Thank you for sharing your journey–God is so glorified by your life and service to Him, your family and the peoples of Mozambique. Praying for you–Hebrews 4:16

    Like

  6. So happy you have strong family, church and friend support to hold you up when you feel weak and to join together asking God for the best possible outcome. It isn’t easy however, easier with support. God’s grace that it was found while you were in the USA.

    Like

  7. I have been thinking of you daily and praying for you, Elin. I’m so sorry you are having to go through this but look forward to the day when you are cancer free. Love you, my friend!

    Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: