All about that mass ‘bout that mass. No! Tumor

“Babette, the word carcinoma on this paper means it’s cancer, it’s definitely cancer, do you understand?”

Is turns out, I have infiltrating ductal carcinoma… I know right? What? 

It’s triple negative…. huh?

And it’s grade 3. 

Am I going to die?

Gosh guys, all these big words started flying at me… and all I could think was. “I can’t have cancer! That doesn’t happen to me.” “Cancer” “What’s happening?” “Why am I crying so profusely?” “Is this really happening?” “ Am I dreaming?”

Infiltrating ductal means that the cancer started in my milk duct. Triple negative means that it’s not influenced by hormones and grade 3 means it’s aggressive, she explained.

“But Babette”, she said, “usually if cancer is aggressive and classified as grade 3 it means 20% of the cells are duplicating. 90% of your cells are duplicating.”

OMG! We needed to act quick. She already made me an appointment at my breast surgeon, Lucienne van Schalkwyk.

The tumor measured at 19mm. I’ve only had cancer for a few weeks. It’s growing very rapidly.

The doctors don’t really understand how I picked it up so early. They said that woman usually only feel the lumps at between 5 and 8cm!! They are also very impressed with the radiology company for picking it up!

How did I get this lucky!? Am I lucky? It doesn’t feel like luck... This feels unfair.