Cancer Diagnosis- Part 1

Hello.If this is the first time visiting my blog, welcome! I am using this space to document my journey with cancer and its aftermath. Writing has always been a comfort to me, and I hope that what I say here will help you somehow. It is also my way of keeping in touch with the many loving friends and family that are supporting me on this path. Thank you!

Honestly, I am writing these beginning details in the past tense because I was diagnosed with a stage zero cancer (DCIS) back in the middle of the summer during the second week of July 2018. After the initial shock, I felt some relief when doctors said I could get a lumpectomy with radiation and stop the cancer in its tracks. My radiologist mentioned that I had a "dumb" cancer that hadn't learned to spread anywhere. Whew! What great news that seemed at the time! However, that news quickly turned worse when I went in to do the surgery on July 30. During a pre-operative ultra-sound, the tech discovered a mass hiding out behind the DCIS area. Turns out my cancer wasn't so dumb after all.

At that point, my doctors decided to hold off on surgery and do more tests to see if there was cancer anywhere else. Once I knew where the mass was, it felt like a stone near my heart - hence the title of my blog. No one can really prepare you for what cancer feels like - physically or emotionally. I try to forget it's there, but it weighs heavy on me at times, and it feels like a small, misshapen stone...a stone that is approximately 1.5 x  1.7 x 5.9 cm in size. It is no longer stage zero, it is an invasive ductal carcinoma closer to stage II.

I am now one month past the initial diagnosis, and am still waiting to skip this stone outta here! Please pray for me and my family as we continue on this journey. Thank you!

Love and light,
Jennifer