About 9 months ago, Trela noticed a small lump in her left breast. At the time she was pregnant with Cavanaugh, and had an OB appointment later in the week. She mentioned it to Dr. Ortiz and he sent us quickly to the breast clinic. The breast care doctor did some tests and declared that it was benign and we needent worry, but scheduled a follow up appointment for 4 months later. At that point we went back, he repeated an ultrasound, and scheduled a follow up after the baby's due date.
Cavanaugh was born on April 25, 2006. Shortly after that, Trela again consulted with the breast care doctor and he said that though he was not worried about it, eventually he would want to do a biopsy and it would probably need to come out at some point. Trela and I decided that instead of doing a biopsy, then later needing to remove it, that it would be wise to remove it immediately, so we skipped the core biopsy and went right for the removal and biopsy.The breast care doctor was so confident that it looked like normal engorged breast tissue that he only removed half of the lump. However, after 2 weeks of waiting (the pathology reports had to be sent to the Mayo clinic for a second opinion) we were given the bad news.
Angiosarcoma.
A very rare cancer of the lining of the blood vessels. THe breast care doctor had never seen one. He referred us to a local oncologist. Dr. Singh had never seen one. Hmm. 0/2 At this point the path became a litte more clear. It was obvoius that we were going to need to go to a major center for care. We set up appointments at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where Trela's dad Terry's old friend is the chief of oncology.
By way of some good contacts in the medical field (Terry's Friend and Eric's cousin Heather) we found out that the best places to treat angiosarcoma are Sloan-Kettering in New York, and MD Anderson in Texas. The Mayo Clinic was reputed to be the best diagnostic center.
So up to this point we have had a few consultations, several tests, though I'm sure a lot more are on the way, and though we still don't know a whole lot about what the next several months hold, here is what we do know.
1. Surgery is the first line of defense.
2. Radiation and chemotherapy will also be used.
3. Because this is so rare, there is little information available, and the protocols are variable between locations. Therefore we must go to a place with experience in angiosarcoma. (Trela's note: The best advice we've received so far is to stop researching on the web... there are so few cases of this out there that I'm practically unique! Of course, we knew that already!)
This is our first time with a blog, and we'll try to keep people up to date as best we can.
Thank you to everyone who has been helping with everything from watching Kile and Cavanaugh to helping with the house, to putting Trela on your prayer lists.
It is all greatly appreciated.
