Yet another member

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   Greetings!

Just found your website and decided to join in the "fun."

On November 7, 2006, after a heated campaign, I was elected Circuit Court Judge.  Thirteen days later, on November 20, I was told I had breast cancer.  I was 50, single mother of a 14 year old with no family history.  What ensued next is what I refer to as like being on "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride with Your Hair on Fire!!!!!!!"  I had to wind down a 20 year law practice, get ready to start the Judge job on January 2 and needed to attend several week long out of town judicial conferences in early 2007.  Thank God I had the most fabulous physicians who delivered!.  At each initial visit, they saw a photo of my daughter and were told "This is my reason for living...you have to fix this..." and then my Hallmark calendar (no palm pilots for this girl!) and told I have places to go and a new job to start...so let's go.

What started out looking like it was probably a .5, no nodes, early diagnosis, with lumpectomy and 5 days of mammocite treatment, turned into 2.0 cm primary, 3 out of 8 positive nodes and an isolated met to my sacrum.  I was Stage IV in a matter of days.  I should mention that I never missed a mammogram...had been having them for 15 years, but have concluded there's not much point in those, since even though I could feel and point to the lump, the mammo could not.  Thank God my gyno had me get an ultrasound, which did detect it.  I cried for a solid month...which did not change the diagnosis one bit.  I researched to the point my physicians literally banned me from the Internet, since as you all know, the stats for Stage IV are far from encouraging.

As I reflect on the last year, what started out looking like a death sentence, has turned out to be one of my happiest years ever (do not think I'd volunteer for this tour again, but all in all, it wasn't that bad.)  I had 32 daily radiation treatments to my sacrum which completely obliterated that met to the point it is no longer visible at all on PET/CT fusion scans.  I had 6 months of Taxol/Avastin (3 weeks on, 1 off), followed by 6 months of Avastin only.  December 27 will be my last one.  I plan bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction in February.

I did not miss one day of work.  Went to 5 judicial conferences, both in state and out.  Had lunch in the West Wing dining room at the White House in June and took my daughter to Ireland for 12 days in August (the week after the Taxol treatment ended.)  I'm happier than I've ever been.  My daughter has her mother and our bond is beyond close.  My attitude now is one of gratitude and I firmly follow the concept that "Time flies whether you're having fun or not, so you might just as well have fun!"  I refuse to miss out on anything.

What I firmly believe made the difference was having aggressive, outside the-box thinking physicians who had me get a PET/CT fusion scan UP FRONT which detected the met.  My treatment plan changed SIGNIFICANTLY once that was detected.  At the 4 month mark, I had another to see where things stood and another at the 9 month mark.  Evidently, getting these scans is not standard of care and thus not routinely ordered.  A 50-year-old triple neg friend died in November...she never got a scan until it was way too late.  Another triple neg friend in Chicago asked for one and was refused.  How sad.

The point is....NEVER, EVER GIVE UP.  We're stronger than we think.  Look forward to hearing from you.

Lynne