Breast cancer battle is just beginning
April 13, 2009 MARY MITCHELL
More than 500 women in the U.S. are diagnosed with breast cancer every day.
On March 13, I was one of them.
It was as if someone had strapped me into the cab of a roller coaster.
Each new test jerked me up a monstrous incline; each new piece of information flung me into an abyss.
And still I consider myself blessed.
I have the support of family and friends who believe in the power of prayer.
I have medical insurance and understanding employers.
And I have a team of compassionate, well-trained doctors.
On February 10, during a routine physical, my longtime family doctor, Dr. James P. Baraglia, felt a lump.
It just so happened I was scheduled to take a mammogram that same day.
Twenty-eight days later, after a follow-up ultrasound and a biopsy, I got the diagnosis over the phone.
"You have a cancer," the radiologist told me.
His words were paralyzing. I spent days weeping and praying before I had the strength to even begin researching my disease.
Still, the doctors described what I have -- ductal carcinoma in situ as well as infiltrating breast cancer -- as a "sneaky" and "wild" form of breast cancer.
Unfortunately, that is not unusual.
