The Adventure Just Got Real

I have toe cancer. 

Well...not really.

I have breast cancer but, for reasons I will explain later, we refer to it as toe cancer.

I've decided to bring my blog back up out of the ashes (I can't believe it's been 2 1/2 years since my last post!) because it seems like a good way to get information out to my precious friends and family.  People want to know what I know and I get that.  I would want to know if it was someone important to me!  And, they feel like they're "bugging" me with a phone call or a text so this just seems like the best way to take care of all that.

So...welcome to my world.  Here's what we know right now:

I have Invasive Ductal Carcinoma.  I will have a bilateral mastectomy on July 12 followed by at least 12 weeks of chemotherapy...or "satan in liquid form" as I like to call it.

And here's how we've gotten to this point over the last 3 weeks:

You might have heard about this little event that happened in Moore on May 20th...not just Josh's 17th birthday but the massive tornado that wiped out huge parts of our community.  While we were out cleaning up in our neighborhood that week, I felt a lump in my left breast and it was a little tender.  It didn't feel any differently than the cysts that I've had in the past but since May is my mammogram month, I called to make an appointment only to find out that I had just had a mammogram in August.  I'd forgotten that my mammo's had gotten off after my surgery in 2011 on my right breast for Lobular Carcinoma In Situ (LCIS) which was just some pre-cancerous cells...no big deal...so I thought! 

Anyway...my doctor made the appointment for me for May 31...mammogram with ultrasound.  After the US the radiologist told me I needed a biopsy because what she was seeing "worried her." I had a biopsy the following Tuesday and then met with the radiologist the following Friday to get the results.  That was 3 weeks ago today.

There was an incident with a pink pillow and another with Richard and I laughing hysterically as we were bawling our eyes out in the radiologist's office, but those are stories for another day.

This post is long enough.  Plus I have to go get my pre-op lab work done today and then do some shopping with Roman.

I look forward to sharing more...there are already parts of my story that I never want to forget so I need to write it all down.  God has been in every detail and has shown Himself in so many ways already!  He loves me and He is walking with me and when this is all over, I hope He is glorified in every way!

The week I was waiting on biopsy results, I read this verse and wrote it in my journal:

But I am poor and needy yet the Lord thinks upon me.  You are my help and deliverer; do not delay, O my God.  Psalm 40:17

And the day before I got the results:  God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore, we will not fear.  Psalm 46:1-2

David was writing about God helping him against men who wanted to kill him.  My enemy is a little different...it's inside me but wants to kill me all the same.  But my God is bigger and I know he wants the best for me!

Grateful.