New To BCNA

Morning All,

Again thank you for your thoughts and comments, it is great to know we have somewhere we can talk about things and with people who Get it :)

Karen had her first appointment last Wednesday (20/03/2019) which provided some great news and some not so great, I’ve started a secrete page on facebook for Karen which was suggested by another person going through BC, Karen and I thought it was a good idea and saved either one of us having to make a number of phone calls to keep other up to date on things and saves us having to talk about the same things to different people over and over again. Our appointment went for around 6 hours below was how the day went and whilst Karen had built herself up for the appointment and not knowing how it would play out we were let down a tad as we need to go back again next week as another biopsy was needed for a second concern we only found out about so we had no plan or dates etc. We will head back in with a bit more knowledge once the results comes back (Should be Mon) and have a better idea on things. Below was the description of our day in summary but I would like to highlight again how wonderful everyone has been, Karen received a phone call yesterday from Breast Care WA and will have someone come by even just to talk.

I'm lucky to have a great company I work for and I have around 80 sick days available (plus long service if needed) so I'll be by Karen side the whole way.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today 20/3/2019 Karen had her first appointment at Fiona Stanley since finding out she had “BC” which was March 9th, 2017 (yea on her Birthday) to review what her treatment plan might be. Today however Karen found out she had another lump which was around 15mm is size as such Karen needed to have a Mammogram, followed by another Ultrasound and straight after, another Biopsy this morning for the second lump located at 6 o’clock. 

The good news is that the original lump located around 1 o’clock on the breast was around 5mm in size and is a grade 1 out of 3 with 3 being the more aggressive. Grade 1 has been described as a slow growing lazy sloth cancer cell. 

Until we know more about the second lump the plan would see Karen having surgery and with the current 5mm lump we would be able to have this removed without needing the whole breast removed. If the second lump is a cancer cell and of the same grade as the smaller one they could both be removed without having the whole breast removed. 

However worse case would see need to have the whole breast removed but only if it’s a must. 

Karen will be contacted once the results are avail (Fri, Mon, Tue) to come back in to review the results and to then look at options for treatment. 

Post-surgery Karen will need to visit Fiona Stanley five days a week for five weeks for radiation treatment followed by a tablet medication for five years which does however provides protection between seven and ten years. 

If however Karen does require stronger treatment because of the results from the second lump we will cross that road then.

One day at a time.