The Details

So here are all the details about my cancer.....
I had 2cm tumor that was classified as Invasive Ductile Carcinoma, which means cancer cells that started growing in the duct tissue but then spread beyond the ducts themselves. There was also an area of the tumor that was Ductile Carcinoma In Situ, which is where the cancer cells have remained within the duct, this is sometimes considered precancerous tissue.
On 8/19, the day before my 40th birthday, I had lumpectomy surgery where they removed the tumor as well as 2 of the sentinel lymph nodes, which are the first nodes that those ducts would drain in to.
After surgery, they analyzed the lymph nodes and tumor cells and determined several things:
-There were no signs of cancer cells in the lymph nodes -very good news.
-It is a grade 2 tumor (out of 3) which indicates it is moderately aggressive.
-It is an estrogen receptive tumor, which means that estrogen helps it grow. The downside of that is bye-bye IUD or any hormonal birth control. The upside is that there is a drug (Tamoxifen) that can target the estrogen receptors and greatly reduce the chance of recurrence.
-The tumor is HER2 positive which also indicates that it is aggressive, but there is also a targeted drug for this.
-There is evidence if lymph-vascular invasion, meaning that although the lymph nodes were clear, it is possible that cancer cells could have spread through my vascular system.

Any two of the above characteristics would have likely indicated chemotherapy as a treatment, with all of them there is no question about it.

So my treatment plan is as follows.....
6 rounds of chemotherapy with the drugs Taxotere and Carboplatin at 3 week intervals (18 weeks total)
One year of Herceptin infusions, weekly for the 18 weeks of chemotherapy, then every 3 weeks
Additional surgery after the chemotherapy is done because the margin of clear tissue around the in situ portion of the tumor was too small.
Then 5-6 weeks of radiation therapy just on the localized breast area
Then Tamoxifen daily for 5 years (pill)

That's all!