Just posting this as a heads up for others. Breast cancer is not a middle aged or older women’s disease. Lots of women younger than 40 (when mammograms become standard) get diagnosed. Self exams are crucial. My wife’s situation is a little complicated because she has dense tissue and fibrosis which makes detection harder. In her mid 20’s she had a biopsy and scans which were all negative.
Fast forward to this year and she was having an IUD replaced. The OBGYN did a breast exam and asked about the history. She still wanted my wife to get checked out. We missed the first appointment and almost missed the rescheduled appointment, too.
After the mammogram results were read they did a sonogram screen the same day and things didn’t look good. Can’t make a diagnosis yet but my wife cried in the car on the way home. A couple days later they did a biopsy of multiple areas. We were scheduled for a consult on a Friday, several days after the biopsy, but the office called and the consult was pushed back to the following Monday.
We went in together and were told the biopsy came back cancerous.
She was diagnosed as a stage 2b invasive breast cancer at 31 years old. The radiologist said they only get someone her age with breast cancer 1-2 times a year. Everyone handles things differently and I’m not the type to break down and start crying. I just did what I could to comfort her and listen to what we were being told. Immediately after we left we went a few offices down to the surgeon. We got a plan of sorts from him with a couple of options and discussed oncologists.
We decided on chemo first then she will have a double mastectomy afterwards.
As of now she has completed the first round of chemo which is doxorubicin or red devil as it’s known. That chemo comes in big syringes the oncology nurses have to push by hand, and is bright red in color hence the red devil moniker. The devil part comes from the harsh side effects. My wife had 5 different anti-nausea meds prescribed and none of them did anything more than take a little bit of the edge off. For 3-4 days after each infusion it was trying to get her to take sips of water and whatever food she could tolerate which was like 1-3 bites every few hours.
Yesterday she started the second round of chemo which is Taxol. The side effects are way less harsh but come with a different set of side effects. Neuropathy is the main one. I looked up nerve health supplements and got her a B complex and alpha lipoic acid. The nurses also mentioned bringing a frozen water bottle to handle during the infusion which seems to help prevent neuropathy in the hands. She has to do Taxol every week for 12 weeks. Then will come the double mastectomy and possibly radiation. Her chemo schedule and further plan of action is on the aggressive side due to her age (handling the treatment better than an older patient) and it’s early enough stage wise they can nuke it to prevent spread past her breast.
We are optimistic but I have another story to share. A good friend of mine just lost his SIL yesterday morning to cancer. She, like my wife, had breast cancer in her early 30’s but opted out of chemo. She did get a double mastectomy but at some point cancer cells must have escaped, and what is now several years later she started feeling underarm pain and got scanned around the same time my wife was diagnosed. Cancer had spread but she wanted to do alternative treatments like an infrared bed and juices. I really really feel bad for those personally affected by her passing but the odds are if she had done chemo with the original breast cancer it wouldn’t have spread and when she was re-diagnosed this summer it’s highly likely starting chemo even at that point would have at the very least extended her life by many years if not put her into remission. Now 3 kids lost their mom and an extended family is in shambles having lost a loved one.
I just wanted to share these stories and urge everyone to be reminded to do self exams including the guys. Don’t let odd stuff go. Early detection and treatment makes ALL the difference. My wife has joined a few support groups and there are women in their 20’s and 30’s dying from this shit because they delay seeing anyone until it’s obvious something is wrong and they are stage 3/4. I also honestly got pissed off reading websites talking about how chemo is a scam and doctors just put people through it because they get kickbacks. Monumentally stupid. My wife’s Lump areas started shrinking by feel almost immediately and as of now the breast in question feels more normal than it has in a long time. At the end of treatments, regardless of what the scans show, she’ll get them both taken just to eliminate the chance of it coming back from that vector. There’s genetic testing to see if it’s gene related but we did the blood testing and then insurance denied it :-/
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