What we know
About a year ago Jul found a small lump in her breast. Neither her general doctor nor her OB/GYN seemed concerned and encouraged her to monitor it only.
A few months ago the duct started bothering her again and we decided to get it checked out. Sadly at this point the scheduler at the cancer center decided Jul was too young to need a mammogram and had her do an ultrasound. An ultrasound is not good for detecting the kind of cancer it appears she has (although at this point we don’t know what kind it is). The results indicated not a cancerous lump but instead a dialted fluid-filled duct. The radiology doctor told her not to worry. If the duct wasn’t bothering her, she didn’t need to do anything about it. If it was bothering her, she could have it drained. Jul decided to do nothing. Shoot.
Right before Christmas, Jul noticed a small stain on the inside of her bra. She had her doctor take a culture of the fluid. The pathology report indicated a few “atypical cells” which can mean many different things.
The next step was a ductogram where they pump contrast into her ducts and then give her a mammogram. This returned suspicious calcifications. They needed to do one more mammogram without contrast so they could compare. We had that done yesterday and it looked pretty bad. There were many micro-calcifications throughout her right breast. The cancer appears to be “extensive.”
The bad:
* They used the word extensive when describing the cancer
* The right lymph node appears to be swollen
The good:
* Jul is young
* The left breast is clear