A Brief Background

In early August, half-convinced that there was something wrong with my pregnancy, I rushed an appointment to my OBGYN while not even 6 weeks pregnant. Of course I thought the problem was an ectopic pregnancy. No, my doctor said, but you do have a lump in your breast. Probably no big deal, she said, but you should have it sonogramed and maybe biopsied to be sure.

Two sonograms and two biopsies later, I find out on Monday, August 23 that I have two tumors filled with ductal carcinoma. On Wednesday evening, I find out that the cancer is invasive. All-day Thursday we met with our first team of doctors from St. Agnes. During a short break in the day, we get lucky and get squeezed into appointments at Johns Hopkins on Monday and Tuesday for some second opinions.

We'll be travelling with John Hopkins on this adventure. While it might sound odd, they have treated pregnant breast cancer patients before. I'm not even their first this year. Also odd-sounding, babies have not been shown to be aversely affected by certain types of chemotherapy when it was started after the second trimester.

At this point, the road ahead looks to hold surgery, 6 months of chemo, a month or so of daily radiation treatments, years of a hormone therapy well-targeted to my cancer and a new baby squeezed in there somewhere before radiation. Ready or not, here we go.