December 1, 2015

Hello all,

Please excuse the lack of personal response to your loving correspondence. I am doing fine and hope to remain doing fine.

Here is what I learned today:

Best case scenario- and the one the surgeon I met today believes will be the outcome:

*Genetic screening soon- 3 weeks for results*Lumpectomy and sentinel lymph node out patient surgery with 3-7 day recovery*Radiation 4-6 weeks 1 hour a day (most common side effects are being tired and possible sunburn type redness by end of week 6)*5 years of tamoxifen (estrogen block pill)

Other possible outcomes:*I test positive for the breast cancer gene and I get a bilateral mastectomy.

*My lymph nodes have cancer in them and I need additional (more intense) chemo/radiation after surgery

*I decide to have a mastectomy instead of the lumpectomy on one side and skip the radiation (unless the lymph nodes test positive in which case I'll get it anyway)

The genetic testing will happen soon but the results take a while so I don't think I'll have any surgery until after the new year.

I have a ton more information such as these features of my lump:

*It is responding to hormones (this is good)

*It is medium sized but not very aggressive.

I am going for a second opinion on Thursday.

Too much information? Not enough? Ask questions if you have them. I'll ask for help if/when I need it. It will likely be mostly Penny related.

Melanoma and breast cancer diagnosis within two years of each other: probably just bad luck.

Love you,

Andrea

PS I don't care who you tell, as long as they don't start sending me pink ribbon clothes or talking to me about god. There might be a time for that, but definitely not now.