My Hero

A few months ago I read The C Word, by Lisa Lynch. I’ve been following her blog for ages and I also follow her on Twitter. All in all, I feel like I know this wonderful woman, despite having never met, and having never had any interaction with her apart from Lisa sometimes replying to my tweets (I still get starstruck every time, because I’m a doofus).

She was diagnosed with breast cancer at the tender age of 28. In reading her book and her blog, I identified so much with her, and she’s been a real inspiration for how to make it through ‘The Bullshit’ (as she calls it) with grace and with humour (and the odd tantrum here and there). And, more importantly, how to live life once all the needles, scans, tests, and hospital appointments begin to wane. I know she’d be proud that I’ve titled this post “My Hero” after a fabulous Foo Fighters track, because, the self-confessed doofus she also is, she’s a massive Dave Grohl fan and secretly wants to marry him (if she didn’t already have the most wonderful husband in the word. Second to mine of course).

Positive results

I’ve been staring at this post wondering how to start it for half an hour so will just make a bulleted list instead:

• The tumour is defined as an invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC)
• It has been classed as a grade 3 (where grade 1 tumour cells are somewhat abnormal, and grade 3 are very abnormal)
• Positive for oestrogen (ER+) and progesterone (PR+) receptors
• Probably negative for HER2 receptors (has been sent away for further testing to confirm)
• Just one lymph node involved out of 18 tested – and it was only a micrometastasis (good)

My surgeon was very happy. She said we couldn’t have hoped for better. It was great to hear that, particularly because I was a bit gutted when she said it was ER+ and PR+. She said it was good because hormone positive cancers tend to be less aggressive than negative ones, and they can treat it with hormone therapy to really kick it’s butt. I’m still not keen on taking hormone therapy pills for 5 years (can’t get pregnant when you’re on them) but will discuss that further with my oncologist and make up my mind once I have all the facts. She did say that you can do a 2 year course, then try to have children, then complete your course after you’ve had your baby, so perhaps it’s not all bad.