Laura’s Story

I was doing a self breast exam when I felt a hard lump that moved like a marble at the 6 o’clock position, which did not feel right. It also had a burning sensation when I felt it. So I made an appointment right away with my OB/GYN doc and she told me that it was nothing and that it was probably benign and to just go home and not worry about it. But it was weighing on my mind. I was nervous. I know my own body, being that I already have epilepsy since I was 9 and three back surgeries. I had to relearn how to walk again twice.

I got a mammogram because I was due for one anyway, and it showed nothing. So I went with my husband and got a second opinion down south in Troy, Michigan. My breast surgeon immediately ordered a stat MRI with contrast dye, which was the most painful MRI I ever had because of the weight it places on your sternum. She ordered an ultrasound and the results showed that I had invasive ductal carcinoma in both breasts at the same time.

Then they took a bunch of biopsies to confirm I had stage 2, grade 3 invasive ductal carcinoma ER PR+. I ended up getting a double mastectomy and she removed four lymph nodes on each side as well on Feb. 11. Then I got tissue expanders put in. I slowly got expander fills over a period of every two weeks to a month because my skin is so thin.

In the meantime, I saw my oncologist and he immediately started me on Lupron injections every month, constant bloodwork, and we talked about my options for treatment. I told him that I didn’t want chemotherapy if possible, so we did an Oncotype test to determine if my cancer would even respond to the chemotherapy, what percentage. Because the percentage was only 19 percent, we opted for hormone blockers. So I’ve been taking aromatase inhibitors every day for the past seven months now, and the Lupron injections every month keep me in menopause because I had a partial hysterectomy one year prior to my diagnosis, so they had to stop my ovaries from making estrogen.

The injections and hormone blockers have been giving me really bad side effects — joint pain, bone pain/loss, muscle pain, night sweats, hot flashes. I am extremely tired all the time. I’m drained. My body doesn’t look like my own. I feel like an alien and it saddens me to my core. Some days, I don’t even recognize myself when I look in the mirror and I have days where I stay in bed all day and I cry for no reason. I get really depressed and I am more irritable and have more anxiety and stress.

I ended up getting reconstructive surgery and I am now six weeks postop. I have a long ways to go on my journey. I have to take my hormone blockers for 10 years, and at some point I will probably have to get surgery to remove my ovaries because I don’t know if I want to keep getting Lupron injections. That is a long time. I still have to decide whether I want to get 3D tattoo nipples or stick-on silicone ones that I glue on again or not too. But it is not something that I want to think about right now.

I have to get IV infusions at the end of this month because I got a DEXA scan done and it showed that the aromatase inhibitors have caused bone loss/osteoporosis already, so we want to stop the bone loss if possible. I also sent out my genetics testing kit and I’m waiting for those results to come back. Because 10 brothers — my uncles — on my father’s side all passed away from some type of cancer, which is frightening. My aunt and my father are the only ones who are still alive.

I’m also being referred to a dermatologist because in the last month the moles on my trunk, neck and chest have been growing progressively. The color and shapes have changed and they itch too. My oncologist suspects that a majority of them are Cx, so that’s another stressor on my plate. And my father is currently undergoing chemotherapy for his non-Hodgkin lymphoma and prostate cancer. He is 82 and has been healthy up until this point.

At best, if my breast cancer were to ever come back, we have radiation and chemotherapy we can still utilize.

-Laura