Updates.

From a particularly inclusive breast-cancer awareness campaign

I spoke too soon.

I read the biopsy report and saw how minor the findings were, but missed the top-line summary (I consider it confirmation bias, because we expected this one to be nothing, so that's what I was looking for). So when I went in to see the surgeon yesterday, we discussed.

Blob Loblaw, the small mass that they detected with the MRI in my right breast, is actually lobular breast cancer. 

First, Arrested Development fans, let's just take a moment to appreciate this pun: Blob Lobular. Because Anna and I chucked about this dark joke for way too long. I mean, when you have two totally different, random-ass (but not random ass, because punctuation matters and let's make sure I get the right surgery) cancers, all you can do is laugh.

Yes, indeed, both of my breasts decided to give me a giant, colossal, FU at the same time.

Second, let's also point out what a testament this is to how thorough my surgeon is. She called for the MRI. The radiologist spotted this weird spot that could potentially be something that was possibly a lymph node but also 0.5 cm across (SMALL), and the second radiologist was able to find that with ultrasound, when I was in a different position (on my back vs. on my stomach in the MRI) and biopsy it. I didn't love him, but I don't have to. He found that little bastard and now we know what we're dealing with.

These are two, independent tumors. Still waiting on the biomarkers, but the lobular cancer is almost always ER+/HER2- (this is what my other tumor is, and is the easiest to treat). It doesn't change treatment options per se, but it means that there are now two blobs to treat.

I came to a decision on surgery, and again, my surgeon was awesome. She wanted me to be confident in my decision; I was, but also, I said, I can be confident and not want to have to make the choice. She replied with "I know. It's a shitty choice to have to make. It's shitty."

She said a patient once told her no one is ever happy to see her, but I adore her and if I met her elsewhere, I would want to be her friend. 

I'll be more open about choices eventually, but this is all new and I'm still coming to terms with things. I will say having two cancers in the separate breasts helped make me more confident in choices I'd made.

They will call me in the next day or two to set up the date, but we're now looking at first week of June or so. More details to follow.