Experience #5: Breast cancer

I think that all of you know by now that right before we left Athens I was diagnosed with breast cancer, that it's small, at a very early stage, and not invasive. In many ways it is fortunate that we are here in Chicago, as there is an excellent breast cancer center at Northwestern. I'm meeting with a surgeon there next Monday, July 2, most probably moving toward a lumpectomy perhaps a week or so after that.

In preparation for the visit, Kate and I have both been reading a lot of material about breast cancer, trying to become better informed so we can make good use of the meeting time with Dr. Khan. I was going to put several breast cancer books I've been looking over on our 10 x 40 booklist, but Kate suggested that it would be good to finish each one first before I added it in! In any case, we've learned alot that we didn't know about how cancer is staged, graded, and otherwise classified.

The lumpectomy is day surgery. The basic idea is that they're trying to cut out the cancerous tissue leaving a margin of healthy tissue remaining. Looking internally, they'll get a better idea of the extent of the cancer and whether radiation is necessary or not. If so, that would entail short daily visits for about six weeks. Sometimes radiation makes people tired, but because the breast is being targeted I will not have nausea, lose my hair and other symptoms that people with cancer in other parts of their body experience while on radiation. With luck, I will be done with all of this (except for the tamoxifen) by the end of the summer -- just in time for the Cubs to win the pennant, right? (They did win again today, 6-4, sweeping the Rockies!)