Pregnancy!!! - 20 weeks

A few weeks ago my left (not the one that had cancer) breast became a bit pink/reddish and felt warm to the touch. I noted to mention it to my OB, but was not that concerned, as I expected craziness in the boob area as pregnancy brings that on.

When I showed her, however, she said it did not look normal. That it looked like a breast that was nursing and had become engorged and infected. She mentioned a CANCER SURGEON, which I thought was weird. We scheduled an ultrasound. Of course the ultrasound people wanted all of my previous MRI and Mammogram results. We were in the midst of acquiring all of that information on CD from my previous institutions as I did more research.

Ah, the anxiety provoking internet.

It seemed that I either had a breast infection, not a big deal and treatable with antibiotics, OR the signs of Inflamable Breast Cancer. That is a bad, BAD cancer that usually has spread by the time you found it and has 25-50% 5 year survival rate, and high recurrence rate. I was very scared.

After getting back in touch with the OB, she suggested that I go straight to the cancer surgeon and look into a biopsy and second opinion since that kind of crappy cancer can really only be seen with a biopsy anyways and the ultrasound would only show "suspicions that need to be followed up on" as every scan seems to do with my history and waste time.

So, I called the surgeon's office yesterday and he made time to see me that same afternoon! He seemed perplexed. He didn't think that it was Inflamable Breast Cancer (which is good, since it has such a bad prognosis) but he didn't think that it was an infection either. The nipple had some crusty stuff on it and was somewhat misshapen. This was abnormal, and possibly a sign of DCIS, an in situ cancer that has not left the ducts or spread and is therefore not nearly as threatening as many other kinds of breast cancer. He said that we should first do a couple biopsies and scrape the nipple (!!! ow) for skin and test those things first. If no cancer is found, then we would do an OPEN BREAST BIOPSY (which sounds really scary, hence the capital letters) in the surgery center (as lactating breasts bleed a lot and he didn't want to do that in the regular office) and then if that was negative, we wouldn't worry. We tentatively scheduled that for next Thursday.

I had the biopsies and nipple scraping today. He must be great at the numbing, because the only part that hurt was the numbing needles (which always hurt, because duh, you're not numbed yet). I was SO worried going in today, that it would hurt like crazy, as all of my other biopsies have. But, I was pleasantly surprised that it did not. Although a few hours later it is starting to hurt.

I'm sick of cancer and boobs and worry. I guess I should get the genetic testing done so that we'll know more about how likely it is to come again as well as how closely to watch the ovaries. I feel like cutting everything out (ovaries) and off (boobs) after baby number 2. The anxiety is a lot to handle.

It has been nice having so many people pray for me though. I let my bible study ladies know, as well as other friends and have felt lots of loving support.