Oncology 1st encounter..

So today was the day that I met with the oncologist at Cite de la Sante (CICL) Dr. Alain Bestavros.  I get to the cancer centre and give my name, they take my hospital card and stick a barcode on it.  Seems like every time I go back all I have to do is scan my card and it automatically registers that I have arrived for my appointment.  I am standing there with a knot in my throat and trying to not look around, I don't want to see the obvious, people waiting to get their treatment.  Up until today it was still very surreal for me.

So my husband and I took and seat and waited to be called.  As I sat there in the waiting room, I could not help but look around and wonder what was their journey.  It was so hard for me to hold back the tears from just falling from my eyes, I felt like I was choking. This is something I never fathomed could happen to me, but we are not invincible. God has a plan for all of us, we take it and grow from it. Our faith is what gets us through anything, although I was very angry at him, but he gives us what we can handle is what I have always said.  

We finally get called after what seemed like an eternity but was 15 minutes.  Dr. Bestavros informs me quickly that the cancer has not matastisized to any other part of the body, what a sigh of relief for both my husband and I. I told him I wanted the demon out, he laughed and called it the same throughout our conversation.  He was very easy to talk to, he took the time to listen to our concerns and answer all our questions.  He did reassure us that my cancer is a low grade 1 at stage 2 and very curable. He has no doubt that I will beat this demon.  I will meet with him again next week after another biopsy on the other breast for precautionary measures. 

So in the end I have Stage 2 Grade 1 invasive Lobular Carcinoma ER/PR+, still waiting for the HER2 results with 3 lymph nodes affected.  I start on Tamoxifen as of next Wednesday, it is a treatment to block the actions of estrogen in my body since my cancer is hormonal, so basically I will go into early menopause.  This will be for the time being until the course of action is discussed amongst the team of doctors.  I will opt for a double mastectomy because the risk of recurrence is very high, as well as have my ovaries removed at the end of the treatment. So much information to take in but as my doctor said, one step at a time and one day at time is the only way to beat this.  Think of today because tomorrow is unknown...