I was diagnosed a second time in December of 2023 (20 years later), a second bout in that same breast and in the same location. I have my annual mammograms and each year it’s normal. But this past November 2023, after the Thanksgiving holiday I got a call from the Breast Center to come in for additional images. The ultrasound showed an abnormal lump in my left breast. The nurses presumed I had injured myself, I was scheduled for a biopsy. Two days later, I got another call from the nurse navigator that the lump at eight o’clock was cancerous. A week later I was scheduled for an MRI when they found a second lump at eleven o’clock in this left breast. The results came back as cancerous as well. Now, I had supposedly two lumps in my left breast which was ductal carcinoma it was a hundred percent estrogen positive tumors. The same as twenty years prior. I chose to undergo a mastectomy for the breast because I was told by the oncologist twenty years ago due having had radiation I could not have it again. I had already came to terms that my left breast needed a mastectomy. I was okay with the decision.

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By the time I spoke with the breast surgeon my mind was made up. I spoke with the breast surgeon we went over my pathology. I listened to my breast surgeon after she stopped talking, I told her my mind was made up. It was going to be a mastectomy. She said “wise decision.” Then the surgeon said “you can get immediate reconstruction.” I can refer to a plastic surgeon.” “I said Oh, Okay.”  

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When I met with the plastic surgeon I had some reconstruction concerns due to some past surgeries on my abdomen area. The plastic surgeon shared that the DIEP Flap might be best for reconstruction as I was not a candidate for silicone. But I was for DIEP Flap at sixty-one years old  with no another health issues.

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I got a call from the plastic surgeon regarding my right breast. He said “you have breast cancer for a second time”, “It may be a twenty percent chance it may develop in the right breast.”  After, I spoke with both doctors and their responses were because of your family history and prevention. They both saw the need for a mastectomy for the other (right breast) as well. Thus, I had bilateral mastectomy with immediate reconstruction (DIEP Flap). After the surgery, I had my post-op appointments everything looked good. Turns out, the pathology results came back that the left breast had one whole tumor instead of two.  The right breast had abnormal cells which was Atypical Lobular Hyper-plasm imbedded in the fatty tissue but was negative for ductal carcinoma. I made the right decision regarding my right breast.

 

Also, I advocated for myself and opted out of radiation because I had radiation twenty years ago plus I had reconstruction and new tissue on the left breast. I don’t have to have chemotherapy. But I have to take estrogen inhibitors for the next five to ten years. I am on a long but patient road to recovery.  

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The takeaway here is we are never out of the woods and because radiation caused scar tissue it became difficult to detect the difference in it and new lumps. Thank GOD for mammograms because it saw what I could not be sure of and it was detected early.  Get your annual screenings! 

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