Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Tuesdays SUCK for me!

Let's re-cap....Tuesday, June 29 is when I found my lump and knew my life was about to change, even if just for a little bit.

Tuesday, July 6 is when my Doctor called and said the dreaded words ... "You have Breast Cancer".

Tuesday, July 13 was when I was told my tumor is triple negative, which meant that I was in for hard core chemo and Herceptin was not an option. That's when I knew this disease in my body was stubborn, just like me.

Tuesday, July 20......I was hoping, praying and believing that good news would come! How could it not after the past 3 weeks? Right? Well, I went in to see my oncologist and left crying. First things first....my one good piece of good news.....BRCA test showed that this is not genetic! Praise God! That means that I get to keep my ovaries and that my sisters don't have anything to worry about. Kaylee on the other hand, bless her heart, will have to start her yearly mammograms at 23. (10 yrs under the age that her mother got cancer). Also, my left breast is cancer free! (thanks Merci for the reminder!)

Now comes the bad news..... the PETscan showed a few lymph nodes by my lungs that were measuring hot. The PETscan machine measures the metabolic rate of the radiation breakdown. Now, this could be 3 different things....
1. Sarcoid. This is an auto immune disease that can look like cancer on the PET scan because they are hot nodes, but they can be treated with steroids.
2. Breast cancer or mastatic disease. This means that it has spread to these lymph nodes. The problem with this is that usually breast cancer spreads first to the armpit nodes on the side that is affected, and then to the mammary nodes and supraclavicular nodes next, and then to these nodes. Mine have not spread to the clavicle area, so the Dr is stumped. She doesn't know why it would have jumped over to those nodes. (the tumor is on the outside of my right breast and these nodes are on the inside of that breast by my lungs)
3. Some new sort of cancer. Lymphoma, or something else, but she didn't want to go into details.

She did say that my lungs, liver, bones and kidney were all OK, so it hasn't masticised as far as organs go.

But, I have to go in for YET another surgery. A Mediastinoscopy... A day procedure where they knock me out under heavy general anesthesia, make an incision in my neck and go downwards and remove the nodes and biopsy them.

What worries her is that these nodes are smaller than my tumor and nodes in my armpit, but WAY hotter than all of those.

So, I am waiting today to hear back from her office with my next surgery date. She wants it to be this week so she can have the results by next Tuesday....Yep....another Tuesday for results.

So, at this point, if it's Sarcoid, I am still a stage 3. If it is cancerous, either Breast cancer or some other sort, I am a stage 4.

Please God, can I just get ONE Tuesday with good results????? I'm beginning to want to sleep all the way through Tuesday and not wake up till Wednesday.

Of course, I have to try and find humor in all of this....it's what gets me through. So, looking and looking for humor, and the only thing I can come up with is that I am stubborn, and so is my cancer. I think we should re-name this "Tiffany Cancer" and write a book about it because there are not too many cases out there like mine....go figure...I've always been "original". I never do anything "by the book".

Ta-Ta for now....

6 comments:

  1. You are Tiffany Ann Hesketh Lynch. You are beautiful and God's property. You are amazing, dynamic, and full of God's power and strength.
    No weapon formed against you will prosper. You and Chris still stand on God's Promises with your ARMY of supporters around you, believing God's Word.

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  2. You can do this Tiffany! On another note you should tell your Dr. that you want your results on Monday's because Monday's always suck and there is no reason to have two days of the week that suck!

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  3. TIFFANY WE ARE PRAYING FOR YOU AND KEEP PRAYING FOR YOU! YOU ARE A CHAMPION! LOVE, JIMMY

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  4. Praying for peace throughout this time. I love that you're always trying to look on the bright side! Keep it up!

    "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,
    so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
    ~ Romans 15:13

    Much love & {hugs}

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  5. Hugs Tiffany! My mom is much like you in the fact that she is "unique" and never "by the book". Keep your chin up! There is hope down this road. My mom bottled ovarian, uterine and liver cancer and is still going strong. Her cancer was also rare since hers generated IN the liver (most start somewhere else and spread to the liver). If she could beat those odds, I'm sure you can too. I'll continue to keep you in my prayers. I think we need to get you a pink superhero cape ;)

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  6. God Bless you Tiffany. You are an amazing woman! You and your family are in my prayers.

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