At that point, I had a lumpectomy to remove it and pathology return benign. Not comfortable with a fast growing and big tumor in my breast, benign or not, I asked for a prophylatic bilateral mastectomy and was told to essentially seek psychological counselling instead. Multiple oncologists concurred. I was comforted by their consensus and started to put this worrying episode behind me.
Feb 2011, I became pregnant with my second child. The pregnancy was uneventful until midway, I started to feel another lump at 11o'clock left breast. I was not worried and assumed it's pregnancy related. Until again, I noticed it seemed to grow fast, doubling in size in about 4-8 weeks. At around 28 weeks, I had it checked out with ultrasound, followed quickly by biopsy. Result came back: IDC, ER+, PR+, HER2-, grade3, Ki-67 (20-30%). 5 year recurrence rate 10-15%.
I was in shock and rushed to lumpectomy with sentinel guided lymph node removal. The sample was sent off to oncotype DX. results came back: lymphovascular invasion, isolated tumor cells in the 1 sentinel lymph node removed. Ki-67(20-30%) Her2-, ER+/PR+ (both just made the cut for oncotype positive).
So I was 30 weeks pregnant at this results. I had the following choices:
1. 2 doses of AC chemo starting 31 weeks, with baby onboard. C-section delivery at 37-38 weeks, 2-3 weeks after that the rest of dose dense AC-T
2. wait for baby to be delivered at 37-38 weeks then start dose dense AC-T after 2 more weeks.
3. deliver early at 34-35 weeks, then 2 weeks later start dose dense AC-T
option 2 did not sit well with me, given that I know my previous tumors both doubles in size in 2 months. option 3 risks baby's health. option 1 has been the standard of care for 10 years, even though there are not much data on its impact on baby's long term health.
I chose 1. Made a promise to baby: if he stays and chemo with me, I'll give him extra weeks to cook. Then I prayed for him and for me. Tomorrow I'll meet him for the first time, but already I feel we have been through a lot together.
