| Jocelin's Corner: Mucinous Carcinoma |
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| Saturday, 30 June 2007 04:14 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Well, I thought I would share more details with you about my cancer and how it came about, since a lot of you have asked about it in your emails and phone calls. So here goes… Btw, the picture in my previous entry was an ultrasound of my right breast that shows two fluid-filled “cysts”. (I’m putting cysts in quotes, b/c they are generally considered benign. Mine however were not.) Marcus really wanted to post a picture to make it more interesting, but I realized we didn’t explain what it was. Sorry! So I’ve been diagnosed with what is called “mucinous carcinoma,” a more rare type of breast cancer. It only occurs in about 1-6% of all breast cancer cases. It generally has a good prognosis with a low risk of metastases, aka spreading. I am in the early stages of the cancer, and the doctors don’t think it has spread nor is it likely to spread b/c of the type of cancer that it is. They won’t know for sure, though, until I have the “cysts” removed as well as a couple of lymph nodes near the area. How it all came about: Last September, God brought an amazing gal into our lives named Melody. She came to visit the community group that Marcus and I lead on Tuesday nights through our church, the Austin Stone Community Church. She shared with me that night that she just moved to Austin, her sister had just died in a car accident, and she was about to have a biopsy to see if she had breast cancer. I remember being in shock, especially as she was younger than me. Her story is amazing and one that I have learned much from - so much that God wanted to give me the same test of faith! ☺ After meeting Melody, I became more aware of my own body and the fact that I probably needed to make sure I was ok. It turns out that I found a lump in my right breast last November. I went to my Ob-Gyn to have them check it out. They recommended I get a mammogram and ultrasound. Yes, I had my first mammogram at the age of 34. And for you women out there who haven’t had one yet, it’s really not that bad! ☺ The results at that time showed two small, fluid-filled cysts, which the doctors were not worried about. They told me that it is common for women to have cysts, and they were most likely benign b/c they were not solid masses. They recommended I come back in 6 months to get a follow-up mammo and US, so I finally got that done a couple weeks ago.
This time, they found the cysts had grown, as well as finding some calicifications that looked worrisome. They recommended I see a surgeon about getting a biopsy done. So I saw my surgeon last Friday. She did 2 different biopsies to obtain some fluid from the larger cyst, as well as, some random tissue samples from my breast, where the findings were. On Monday, my surgeon called to tell me the news. So far, I have scheduled a lumpectomy on July 23 with my surgeon, and a
follow-up appointment with my oncologist on August 7 to discuss the
plan for chemo and radiation as needed.
And the rest of my story continues from there. More updates to come... Again, I can’t thank you all enough for joining us on this journey. We are excited to see God work in our lives and the people around us as we overcome this struggle with His help! I really do love y'all!
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First, I just want to thank all of you for your emails, phone calls, ecards, cards, encouraging words, prayers and scriptures that you have given us. Man, we have been overwhelmed by the love we feel from everyone. God is so good to us!!! So far, we’ve received over 90 emails from people. (I’ve actually had to create a separate folder to store them all so I can refer to them later!) I haven’t kept track of the phone calls, but I’m pretty sure that makes it over 100 people who have checked in with us and told us they love us and are praying for us. Marcus and I have started a list to count the blessings throughout our journey, and you all are high on that list! Thank you!