Biopsy Results

Back in August I needed a physical to go to girls camp, so I scheduled an appointment with my OBGYN, (since I was overdue for my annual anyway) and figured it would be just a quick in and out type of thing since overall I'm a pretty healthy gal :) During the breast exam however my doctor found an unusual lump.  As soon as she showed me and I felt it for myself I was like, whoops, that was obvious. I felt a little embarrassed that I hadn't been doing my monthly self-exams but at least my doctor was on top of it. She ordered an ultrasound and the results showed that the lump was irregular. A needle biopsy was scheduled next, they found that the cells in the lump were rapidly dividing and it would need to be removed and further biopsied. Surgery was scheduled at the end of August and the lump was taken out. I was told I should have results back in a week, but after the first round of tests the doctors couldn't come to a consensus on what it was. Luckily we are blessed to live 40 minutes away from Mass General, the #1 ranked hospital in the nation. My labs were sent to the experts there and a week later, they had results.

We were in Chicago house hunting when I got the call.  My doctor had good news and not so good news. She said that the lump was something called a phyllodes tumor. Not cancer. (Good News!) But it was more aggressive than they originally thought and had the potential to return and become something more serious, so she told me I would have to come back in for surgery to take out more tissue and get clear borders. (Not so good news )

I was happy that it wasn't something terrible, happy that it had been caught early, happy that we were close to such a great hospital and able to get the most clear and accurate results, but in the middle of the stressful task of finding a house and trying to make some huge decisions for our family in a very short amount of time, the thought of having surgery again overwhelmed me and I felt my emotions threatening to fall apart.

As tears started to come, Taber helped me hold it together. He put his arm around me and gave me some golden advice. He said, "Babe, I know we've got a lot going on right now, so let's just take this information, put it in a box, and lock it up for awhile. Right now we're going to focus on finding a house. When we get home, we'll focus on all the other things going on, and in two weeks, when it's time for your surgery, we'll open up this box again."

So that's what I did. I wrapped it up, put it in the box, sealed it up and tucked it in the back of my mind. We got through our house hunting trip. We put an offer an a house and it was accepted! We got lots and lots of paperwork taken care of. My mother, (who had flown out to watch the kids for our trip) stayed an extra week and helped me clean, organize and purge my house so it would be all ready for the movers. We got so many good things accomplished in those two weeks while that thought was locked away.

Tomorrow is my surgery so tonight I finally opened that box up again. Now that all that other stuff is taken care of, the thought in the box isn't so scary anymore. I've got Taber, who is taking off work to take care of me. I've got great friends who are watching the kids and bringing meals. I've got an amazing doctor who I'm sure will perform the surgery flawlessly, and I've got a pretty good feeling that I'm gonna score a milkshake tomorrow, because Taber loves me like that :)

I'm grateful for my awesome support system here, grateful to have good doctors and access to great medical facilities. Grateful for family, grateful for prayers, and grateful for "little boxes" :)