Hello all. A good friend, Jackskellingtonsgirl has sent me to this thread for advice and support.
I went in on October 6th for my annual diagnostic mammo. (My Mom had bc as well as my dad's sister. Since I have DD with calcifications they started doing diagnostic four years ago.) After initial pics, they came back out to get me to do targeted pics, then a sonogram, then worked me in later that day for a ultrasound core biopsy. Two days later they called me with the news that I have a small invasive duct cancer. That day I made an appt. with my Mom's breast surgeon. That was last Wednesday, the 13th. He wanted to do a ct, mri and bone scan, and thankfully, I was able to do the ct and mri that night, with the bone scan the next day. I have an appt. tomorrow for genetic testing/counseling. When I got home from the bone scan I had a message that they want me to do another ultrasound after looking at the mri. I went in last Friday to do that, and they had found three more spots, two near the first one and one a few inches away. Before I even got out of the parking lot from having the biopsies, the doc's office had called to get me in to an appt. with a plastic surgeon.
I will have a lot of questions I'm sure and I apologize that I haven't had time to go back and read the thread. I will read it, but time is at a premium now. I work a 50 hour work week, have a teenager and a tween who are involved in sports, have a 40 mile commute and am looking at major surgery in the next couple of weeks. I'm quickly trying to get ahead at work and thinking of putting up my Christmas decorations and trying to get most of the shopping done. I won't get everything done, but if I can get some of it done I think I'll feel less stressed. The decorations are important to me as I'll be house bound, love, love, love them and think they will be soothing to me. I will most likely do gift cards for most of the family to get it out of the way as I know everyone will understand. I've also had offers of help with decorating.
For now, I just wanted to say hello and to ask if there is anywhere on the thread that has bullet points or an outline of some of the questions asked, or am I going to need to go back and read this one and the two older threads?
Thanks for listening everyone.
Marci
We are having a big party tomorrow to celebrate kids' bday and our beautiful new space.
. The bad news - I'll remain lopsided 
. Since I decided not to have any implant on the non-mastectomy side it's just not quite as perky as the expander side but scientists say we aren't symetrical anyway, on some of us it's just more evident 
. Since I got home from work early today and feel so energetic from that news I think I'll put an extra mile on the treadmill and get ready for all that walking at Disney.
Thank you for welcoming her!
(Tears of relief!) I'm so glad. 
Do you have any specific questions? 
). I've had some issues with mild lymphedema in that arm, and they also radiated that whole area which, between that and the surgery, has left the area pretty tender and sore, even years later. But it beats the cases of severe lymphedema that I used to see years ago when they routinely took out all the lymph nodes in the axillary area (and the lymph fluid had nowhere left to go). It's important to do the exercises they prescribe after your surgery so that the lymph fluid can reestablish a way to get back up from your arm to the rest of your body. Surgery and radiation help abolish those original pathways somewhat. It's a pretty amazing technology, though, when you think about it. Will they do radiation with you?
