How we got here ...

So a lot of you have asked me how I was diagnosed. I will tell you it's not an incredibly exciting story. However, the story is amazing in that it (or at least feels to me) was a complete fluke that we found it.

So April 1 I had my yearly exam. I was going to a new doctor - my old doctor's office closed down. Granted, I haven't had a yearly in about 3 years. And I'm usually better about going, but the doctor's office closed, I had young kids, it was hard to get out, and I wasn't sure how to find a new doctor. But a good friend recommended one to me, so off I went.

Now, I should also mention (for those that are unaware) my mom had breast cancer when she was 30 (I was 10 so I have very vague memories of it). I have ALWAYS put that down on health history forms. Dr. S (the new doctor) was the first one to ask me about it though. {Now, I'm going to give my other doctor's the benefit of the doubt because mostly I saw them through pregnancy and also I'm assuming most of them probably thought my mom was older and it wasn't a concern for now.}  Anyway, Dr. S and I talked about it and when she found out my mom had been 30, she kind of wasn't sure quite how to advise me. Generally, you are supposed to get your first mammogram (if you haven't already had one) when you are one year younger than your mom was when she had cancer. But I'm already 31 so we missed that.

The doctor kind of hemmed and hawed - 30 isn't a common age for breast cancer. She had done my physical exam and had no concerns. She was however, worried about exposing me to the mammogram at my current age if we didn't have to. So she decided to send me to a specialist to get her opinion on when to start mammograms for me given the history.

So a little over a week later (April 11), I'm in Dr. A's office (a breast specialist) - remember to get a second opinion on when and how often to get mammograms from this point forward. We get into the room and she tells me there are calculators to calculate your risk, but they don't even go down to 31, one starts at 34. And even with my mom's history, at 34 my chance of breast cancer is on 0.02% so it's probably not a big concern.

And then we start the physical part of the exam. And she's asking me questions. And some more questions. And noticing things. That's about the time I thought, um, things are getting kind of serious here. Then she does a quick ultrasound on me. And at that point she says I need to go for a mammogram "now." {Literally the order said when to be performed and she wrote "now"}.

I had a diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound that same week on Thursday (April 14). Diagnostic means I had it done at the hospital and a doctor read it right then and there and went over the results. So that day I was informed there was a little concern and a biopsy was in order, but not to worry because it usually turns out to be nothing and if it weren't for my mom's history, the hospital doctor wouldn't even recommend a biopsy for me. They would simply want me to follow up in 6 months to see if anything changed.

One week later - April 21 - I had a stereotactic biopsy performed. And it was the following Tuesday (April 26) the results were in that showed cancer.

I won't lie. It moved so fast. 26 days between the first doctor's appointment and cancer diagnosis. Just 26 days. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around that. And I keep thinking I had no idea. My gynecologist had no idea. What if she hadn't sent me to the specialist? What if they would have said, oh let's not biopsy, let's wait 6 months and see? What if? What if? What if? I could drive myself crazy with the what if's so I'm trying to not go there.

Instead, I consider myself amazingly lucky that we caught when we did. That I have a diagnosis. That we didn't wait. That my gyn wanted a second opinion. Because really? I am lucky we found it when we did.