Well sh*t...

 Life is full of surprises, and some of them aren't great.

In November 2023, I was minding my own business, planning on dragging my feet about getting  my mammogram, which is currently scheduled for every 2 years, and was slightly overdue.

After my mammo, I get a notification from the clinic that they found something. So I went back in, looked at the image, and wow, did they ever find something. I could not feel this new thing, nor could the surgeon tasked with taking it out. It was cancer if you haven't guessed.

Fast forward a few weeks, and I'm recovering from my basic lumpectomy (and one sentinel lymph node-ectomy), and I get the pathology report. Switch gears! More cancer. My oncologist recommends getting a mastectomy, and I'm thinking heck yeah, I don't want this to come back. Also, I had a "we don''t know what it is" biopsy on the other side, about 10 years ago, so I have made the decision to have a double mastectomy. It may seem radical, but as it is, this whole schmoo will take up about 6 months of my life between surgeries and chemo/radiation, and when you hit 60 you start thinking about things like this.

So that's the plan. Double mastectomy plus chemo at this point. About 4 doses of chemo. Really not looking forward to that.

BUT. Oddly, I am feeling very grateful right now. Not looking forward to surgery and treatment of course, but very grateful. Grateful that I have health insurance; that I got my mammogram and did not wait; for all the very kind people in my life who have offered any assistance they can; for all the other women I know (holy tweet there are a LOT of us) who have survived cancer, and double mastectomy, and can coach me through it; for my loving spouse of 31 years who has been there for me constantly; and my fabulous family for loving me and caring about me. And my cat.

And I'm feeling positive about the outcome, I have talked to many survivors of cancers much worse than mine.

So that's my news. I will blog here infrequently, and post updates when I do.

My main purpose in telling everyone is that I really want all you women friends to get your mammograms on schedule. Don't ignore anything abnormal. And you men? If there is a lot of breast cancer in your family, and if the breast cancer gene has been detected in a mother or a sibling, you get checked out as well. (I don't have this gene).

For those who are familiar with cancer, I have an invasive lobular carcinoma, estrogen receptor positive, HER2 negative.