When it rains it pours

Well, I met with the radiation oncologist today and it was sort of a good news/bad news situation. First off, my radiation treatments can be done here, the side effects are general fatigue and some burning of the skin. Long term effects include increased risk of heart disease since it was my left breast. I'm just happy that I won't have to lose so much work time.

Now for the bad news, the original lump that was found back in June was never removed--it is still unclear why not or even if it was ever biopsied. I had an ultrasound performed and the radiologist and surgeon both felt that is was a fibroadenoma (but on the original ultrasound the radiologist felt one of the masses was a fibroadenoma and the biopsy proved otherwise) so the bottom line is, I am having an excisional biopsy/lumpectomy on Monday morning to remove the original lump that started this whole journey. Once the pathology is done we'll know what else I'm dealing with. I guess you could say I've gone full circle--I just feel like I spun my wheels a little in the past few months.

So, needless to say, I'm encouraged that I'm getting to start moving forward onto another part of my journey but I'm discouraged that it'll be delayed a little bit. Since they aren't taking any lymphnodes my recovery should be a little shorter.

I'm off to Richmond for another race (Hanna may change my plans) where I'll get to see some family and good friends. Tiger Lily will be spending her first weekend with her father and she is excited to spend some time with him. I'll keep everyone posted.