Thursday, May 6, 2010

how I found out

It's very important to pursue even the most benign lump or skin discoloration. Here's how the story has unfolded for me:
I was lying in bed at the end of February and all of a sudden felt a golf ball sized lump in my right breast. I had my ob/gyn check it out and she said it was nothing, it was mobile, moved alot, and didn't feel like a true breast tumor. she made an appointment for 3 weeks out to get a mammogram and I was like WTF, 3 weeks? She callously told me that if I wanted to schedule something sooner I could do it myself, so I was able to get one in 2 weeks, woo-hoo. Mammogram and sonogram came back negative, and the radiologist told me I had nothing to worry about and sent me home. I got a letter in the mail a couple weeks later for a surgical oncologist, I had no idea why. He felt the tumor and diagnosed me with PASH, a benign condition, but just to be on the safe side he did a fine needle aspiration. A couple days later he called me with good news saying that the results were consistent with PASH, but that they needed a core biopsy to rule out any weird sarcoma malignancy. Again, a 3 week wait. I asked to have an MRI in the mean while just for some piece of mind. The next day I was scheduled for another sonogram based on the MRI results, only no one had discussed those results with me. When I called to find out the results, there was a nurse who callously told me that the results were suspicious. I asked her what that meant, and she became flustered and basically hung up the phone. ho. I then called my doc and he brought me into his office and performed the biopsy himself, and when he punctured the tumor and just bled like a geyser. I knew then that it was a vascular tumor, the angiosarcoma that I had been obsessing over. It took 4 days to get that confirmed and well, that brings us to about right now. This is an incredibly rare vascular tumor made up of the stromal tissue of the breast and accounts for 0.04% of breast cancers, lucky me. There's no standard treatment because it's so rare, and chemo is generally not effective. It has the worst prognosis of all breast cancers. el sucko. but then again, oh well, all I can do is kick that statistic in the ass.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Corrie,
    I do not know if you remember me. I am a friend of Julie's and I was in the Rock lab. I am so sorry to hear about you diagnosis. It is good that you followed your gut and followed up.

    You are entering this fight with the 3 most important things needed to win : a support network and the best doctors in the world @the Farber and a great attitude.

    I will continue to follow you fight on your blog. Please let me know if you need anything--I still live in Worcester. My email is lampozzi@gmail.com

    Lu-Ann

    Lu-Ann

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  2. thanks deary, I'm going to dana farber next week

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  3. Hey Corrie, This is Carol Kerr (Doug's Mom). You seem to be focused on what matters - those two beautiful girls, loving husband and family and friends. Please let us surround you with love and support. Is there anything I can do? I'd be happy to cook, clean, babysit, you name it!!! Please let me know. I love you, Corrie.

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