Little Cancer Factories

When I found out I had breast cancer, and had decided to have a double mastectomy, I joked to friends that I was "getting rid of my little cancer factories," as if my boobs were churning out tumors left and right.  Truthfully though, I had only one confirmed cancer site out of the 9 biopsies I had gotten, so they weren't actually very productive cancer factories as far as I could tell.

Today at my 2nd post-op appointment, I received the pathology report from my mastectomy.  It takes the lab a while to do this because they are literally examining every square inch of your entire breast (or two breasts, as the case may be) looking for abnormal things.  The report is five pages long and is a riveting read if you're ever looking for something new to help put you to sleep at night.  Thankfully, my surgical team highlighted the most important parts of it for me.  Allow me to summarize here:

In my right (non-cancer) breast, they found lobular carcinoma in-situ (LCIS), which is considered a Stage 0 cancer, or a pre-cancer.

In my left (cancer-containing) breast, they found multiple other small sites of cancer, similar to the one that got me into this mess in the first place.

MULTIPLE.

*jaw hitting floor*

Holy crap. 

My boobs really were little cancer factories!!!  It seems they were just getting started ramping up production and never got a chance to earn their ISO 9001 certification. 

Have you ever made a really important decision and then after it was said and done, questioned whether or not it was the right choice?  But then, something happened that totally and completely solidified your original decision? 

This is hands down the best example of that in the history of the entire universe. 

I'm sure many people have wondered if it was really necessary for me to have a double mastectomy for one little bit of cancer.  Why not just have a lumpectomy, maybe hit with some radiation, and enjoy a quicker recovery?  Two words:

Cancer Factories.

My boobs were ticking time bombs.  And now I'll never have to worry about them causing more grief because they're gone.  Buh-bye.  Adios.  Peace out, bitches! 

I don't want to say my pathology report was "good news" because it really had a lot of bad stuff in it, but it certainly was reassuring news. 

You know what is good news though?  Today I was cleared to drive again.  I'm not allowed to take long drives, or, you know, drive like I'm in MarioKart, but I can go to the grocery store (where I can't buy anything because I'm still not allowed to lift more than 8 lbs) and such.  I'm almost out of postage stamps, so maybe I'll go on a post office adventure tomorrow and buy 7 lbs worth of stamps.  I can hardly wait!!!