June 16, 2008. This is the day my world changed. My wife, Nancy, was diagnosed with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. She was 46 years old at the time. Now it is not all doom and gloom but it sure felt like it at the time to me. I will continue over the fold so please follow if you so desire.
It was May 2008 when Nancy asked me to check this lump out on her right breast. I could feel the lump and we both agreed that she get into the doctor ASAP. She got an appointment right away with her gynecologist. The doctor had her do a mammogram which was inconclusive so she followed up with a sonogram. It was then decided that she go see a very good oncology surgeon to have a biopsy done.
June 10th was the surgery day and we were very apprehensive but confident that this would just be routine and it would be a benign tumor. Dr. Williams seemed to be very focused on the surgery at hand. I did some google on her and she seemed to be and excellent surgeon so we both felt good about Dr. Emilia Williams. The surgery went well and Nancy came out of the anesthesia good. Dr. Williams told us that it was a small tumor and she removed it because it was so small. We would have to wait for the test results the next week.
June 16th came and we had an appointment with Dr. Williams. Nancy and I waited in her exam room and my feelings were of confidence as I had thought this was going to turn out good for my wife. Dr. Williams came in and she got right to it. "Nancy you have breast cancer" she said. Talk about the shock of our lives. We were both in tears and Nancy was sobbing as the doctor was holding her. She then proceed to tell us the type of cancer, IDC 1.6 cm in size and tell us options and gave us a booklet on breast cancer. We cried in each others arms after the doctor left and then Nancy said it is what it is and we just deal with it. She was so strong that woman!
I was in total shock for days. I had read the breast cancer booklet and then off to the internet for more research. I went to breast cancer blogs on some American Cancer Society sites and others. Well some of the experiences of the people on these blogs just horrified me about my wife's prognosis. I must have looked horrified as Nancy just said "get off those sites you are just scaring yourself" which I agreed it was. I decided to focus on alternative cancer treatment research as Nancy told me she did not want to do chemo or radiation and I told her I would be with her 100% on any decision she made regarding her treatment. My research came up with Issels Medical Center in Santa Barbara California. She decided to go to Issels for treatment.
While we were preparing for this trip and the treatment Dr. Williams said that she wanted to do a staging surgery to see what stage the cancer was. Nancy called Dr. Issels and he told her to go ahead with this procedure. We went ahead and scheduled this surgery for the 16th of July. Well about two days before this surgery Nancy started getting very sick with vomiting and diarrhea that was so severe that we had to cancel the surgery the day of the surgery. We found out weeks later that she had salmonella. Now I have to explain this surgery is when they inject an radioactive isotopes into her tumor area and also a dye. The dye and the isotopes help identify the sentinel lymph nodes under her right arm as that is where the cancer would metastasize first. The next week she was well enough to go through with this procedure. After the surgery Dr. Williams came into the room after Nancy was out of recovery and told us that the preliminary tests showed no cancer. We were very happy as she only removed 4 nodes. Nancy did not want to loose any of the lymph nodes as they are part of the immune system and I of course agreed. We met the doctor a few days later and she told us that there was microscopic cancer metastasis in one node. This put her cancer at stage II.
We left for Santa Barbara the the next week and spent three weeks there with Nancy going through very intensive integrated care. I was impressed with the care and treatment as they used many blood tests and Nancy did a PET scan which is a full body scan for cancer tumors. They also did IV drips every day along with many other therapies along with counseling. There is also a complete diet change which Nancy and I had already been doing for a month now. Well by the time we left in August her blood work was so improved and all tests showed her cancer free and her immune system was totally kicking ass. We were happy.
Nancy keeps up with her blood work tumor markers and she has had two follow up PET scans which were clear. We also have her get a vitamin C IV once every two weeks at a local Naturopath doctor. All in all we are grateful for her progress and continued cancer free status. The main worry I had before the HCR passed was being able to retire and have insurance in our retirement. So that is the story and although we went through this, at the time it was totally distressing we have grown from this experience. I know now that the woman I love is so strong and was during this ordeal. We have faith that she will keep beating cancer.