Dear Diary,
Let’s get a little more clinical here. Again it’s invasive ductal mucinous carcinoma. Basically the cells in my milk ducts have created an abnormal cluster of cells and they are only in one place. They are surrounded in mucus which makes them mucinous. Only 2% of breast cancers are like mine so it’s less studied. Again I’m Estrogen and Progesterone positive so ER and PR + and I’m HER2 negative. The HER2 is a gene which dictates cell growth. This is a good thing! I want my diagnosis. I can control the ER and PR through drug therapy and the HER2 negative means mine doesn’t grow as rapidly. I also did a full panel of genetic testing for various types of cancer and I do not have the BRCA genes. Those genes will predispose me to cancer…so if you’re one of cousins on my dad’s side you’re in luck you probably didn’t get the gene either and you’re probably not likely to get breast cancer that’s BRCA related from this side.
I also did something called Oncotype Diagnosis. They took samples from my biopsy and grew them in a lab then measured how quickly the cancer cells grew, spread and developed. At my age under 20 is fantastic…no chemo, above 25 sucks…you’re gonna get chemo…then there’s a very finite grey area…21-24… they’re balancing if chemo is gonna hurt you more than help you…guess what my number was….lemme help you…who’s the basketball GOAT? You guessed it MJ!!! 23…twenty fucking three…I got the exact middle which is why I’m waiting for surgery to determine if I need chemo.
If the cancer did spread into my lymph nodes, which it shouldn’t, I’ll likely have chemo but if it’s not there then no chemo…I’m only doing it if my doctor says I’m probably gonna die if I don’t. If I have to do chemo it’s 4 rounds of a “light chemo” basically day 1 I’ll get the drugs and then they work their way through me and then 21 days later I go back for more. I do not want that and let’s just take a minute to pray that I don’t need it.
Since I’m talking about genetic testing I also did a full panel of genetic testing for other things I could potentially pass to a child. I came back positive for Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy, Type 2A is one of a group of inherited disorders that affect the muscles of the hips and shoulders. Honestly I’ll take that over Alzheimer’s or other cancers. Jimmy’s test results can back with a positive gene for hearing loss but the doctor isn’t concerned about either so it should all be fine…and if it’s not oh well…I guess that’s something we’ll have to figure out if we even get viable blastocysts to freeze and then thaw to implant. I think that’s it for now…-G
Gel's Sueso 