The reason for my background change...

A few days before Christmas I called my mom at work to find that she wasn't there and one of her co-workers told me she was gone for the day. This was unusual because it was only 10am so I was worried that something had happened with her wrist (remember my post about her breaking it?). I called her cell phone and she was on her way home. After talking for a minute or so she told me that she had just had a biopsy of a lump she found in her breast and wouldn't get the results back for a couple of days.

On December 26 I woke up with a migraine and Chris had taken the girls to my parents house to frost some cookies my mom made. When he came home he told me that my mom said I needed to come with him when he went back to pick up the kids. I knew it wasn't going to be good news. I didn't wait, we went over immediately. My mom told us that the test results on the lump came back cancerous. The rest of the weekend was a bad one for me, I was pretty depressed, didn't want to go anywhere and I didn't want to talk to anyone outside of my family. Melissa was kind enough to take over my calling in Primary on Sunday and I pretty much stayed in my pajamas the whole weekend.

After the innitial shock wore off and I talked to my mom more about treatment options (a lumpectomy and radiation) I started to think more positively. Then another problem hit us. Her breast care doctor sent her for an MRI and she told us on December 31 that they found more tumors in her other breast, one bigger than the first one that was found. At this point the treatment then changed to a double mastectomy and chemotherapy, which is obviously more invasive than we thought she was going to have to go through.

Last Monday I took my mom to have another biopsy (thanks again Melissa for watching my girls, you are THE BEST!) and about an hour later she came out with some good news...finally! The doctor first did an ultrasound to find the tumor before she did the biopsy and told my mom that she couldn't find ANY tumors on that side. What?! Apparently your lymph nodes can move from your armpits to your chest and back and so that's what was seen on the MRI...lymph nodes, NOT tumors. I almost cried when she told me. We FINALLY had some good news.

So, back to lumpectomy, right? Wrong. Her tumor is 6cm and they won't do a lumpectomy on anything bigger than 4cm. So, on Friday she is having a single mastectomy and will begin chemotherapy in about a month. In about a year, if all treatments go well, she will have plastic surgery to make her look more normal again. (The good part about this is that they will take fat from her stomach and use that as an implant. I told her she could have some of mine since we are the same blood type...) I will be at her house everyday for the weeks following surgery because my dad will have to go back to work.

We are all trying to be optimistic about the whole situation. Yes there have obviously been tears shed over it, but medical science has made so many advancements in cancer treatments and catching things early that we are hopeful for everything to turn out well. My mom is actually in good spirits and that has helped me to try to keep a positive attitude about everything. My aunt (mom's oldest sister) called me today and was very gloomy and I got off the phone thinking "wow, that was an uplifting conversation". I'm being sarcastic of course. All of our extended family has also been concerned about the toll this is taking on me and the pregnancy, but I reassure everyone that the baby and I are just fine. I will be allowed to be with my mom during chemotherapy, just not during the actual treatment, but afterwards is fine according to my doctor.

So anyway, that's the reason for my background change. If you see me around somewhere you'll probably notice my pink breast cancer bracelet that all of my family is wearing. Kenadie and I are also growing our hair out to donate it to cancer patients. I've thought about doing this many times before, but I always get impatient and cut it. This time the meaning hits a little closer to home...

One last thing: I am encouraging every woman to keep current on your mammograms. I think that normally starts around age 35-40, but for me it will now begin at age 30 because now that my mom has breast cancer, my risk for getting it goes up. If you aren't getting yearly mammograms yet, I encourage you to do self breast exams at home, this is how my mom found her tumor.