The date of receiving the biopsy results rolled by with no news, no return phone call, no follow up. We left for our 4-day trip to New York with a small nerve of worry but mostly annoyance that we were left hanging over the Christmas holiday!
On the morning of December 26th, Ken and I had finished breakfast on our way to the 9/11 Memorial Museum. I was standing on a street corner when I saw that my primary care provider (PCP) had called. I immediately called him back and he said, “The news is not what we had hoped for.” The biopsy finding was ductal (milk duct) carcinoma. The tissue was Progesterone Receptive (PR) Positive and Estrogen Receptive (ER) Positive (once again, I had no context to understand the significance of this information). He used words like "lumpectomy", "radiation", "mastectomy." Mostly, the mastectomy word hit home the hardest.
My PCP recommended a breast surgeon and offered for his office to schedule an appointment. The surgeon's first available date for the initial treatment consultation was January 10th.
After ending the call, I told my husband the news (which he had already surmised) and he held me as I cried. Perhaps it was a blessing to visit the 9/11 Memorial right after this news as I was able to openly mourn not only the horrific terrorism of 9/11 but the new reality that I was facing: I had cancer.