About

My life theme for March 2007 was “Holy crap!” – I was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer at the tender age of 39 (yes, it’s the one circumstance in which I get told “You’re so young!”) and had a mastectomy 16 days after diagnosis. My first blog, Imagine Bright Futures, was about my niece’s adventures with a rare liver disease, and the theme holds true for my own adventures in medical land, so I have christened this blog Imagine Bright Futures II.

For those in the know, my cancer was: IDC, 1.9 cm, + extensive & multifocal DCIS, stage 2, grade 1, 1+ node out of 16 nodes taken, ER+/PR+, Her2neu -

Timeline:

• March 1, 2007: my niece tells me she’s “sorry for the cancer” (note that this is before I knew I had cancer)
• March 3, 2007: I get a call back for a 2nd mammogram
• March 9, 2007: biopsy – ouch!
• March 13, 2007: cancer diagnosis
• March 13 – March 25: a lot of tests: C/T, PET, MRI, 3 more biopsies
• March 29, 2007: mastectomy
• April 19, 2007: port placement surgery
• May 3, 2007: chemo – A/C
• June 28, 2007: chemo – taxol
• August 9, 2007: all done with chemo!
• Sept 21, 2007: port out
• Oct 7, 2007: I start taking tamoxifen
• Oct 9, 2007: radiation starts
• Oct 14- 16, 2007: harmony hill retreat
• Nov. 6, 2007: I stop taking tamoxifen (too much for me with rads side effects)
• Nov 19, 2007: all done with rads!
• early-mid Dec, 2007: start tamoxifen again
• Dec 2007: mom diagnosed with uterine cancer (8 yrs after her stage 0 cancer; she’s fine now)
• 2008: stop tamoxifen again
• summer 2008: casting for recovery retreat
• Sept 2008: start zoladex + femara
• 2008 – 2009: various cancer scares, all’s well that ends well
• early 2009: aunt (26-yr survivor) diagnosed w/ 4th primary breast cancer (she’s fine now too)