March 5th-ish, 2012

"I don't wanna freak you out, but I found a lump"...
These are the first words that come to my mind when someone asks, "How did it all start?"  In mom's mind, she always has to be the strong one for everyone else, but now it is our turn to be strong for her.

The following posts will explain the events that will follow what will now be known as: "Super Marmie's battle against the breast cancer ninjas!!"

On the 5th of March, Mom went into the doctor's to get a biopsy of the lump she had found one morning while getting dressed.  Of course, Dad went with her that day, and the next day as well, when the results came back. The doctor said the results will come back within two days, but on March 6th, the doctor's office called and said, "Dr. Porter would like you and Mike to come in today at 4:45." At that point they knew something was serious.  Mom had took a big breath and called Dad right away.  They were both very quiet and concerned as the doctor explained the biopsy showed that the lump was a cancer called invasive ductal carcinoma.

The next steps were to schedule an MRI and meet with a group of oncologists to go over the results and possible procedures to eradicate the cancer ninja's from their housing compartment of the left "girl" (of course the slang used here is not that of the doctor, wouldn't that be funny though!).

Mom was pretty shaken up, so was Dad, but the doctor said that the best thing to do was to get a good support group going.  They came home after a good cry, and called all of us - family and friends - to tell us all the news.

Obviously, its always a shock for anyone to hear, "its cancer."  All of us kids were just as emotional, so it was very strange to us when on that very night, we all came over to the house to find that she wasn't even there!! She was at Relief Society chattin' it up with her home-girls like nothing was wrong.  At least all of us kids had the same idea - to be home with Marmie on this seemingly scary day - Pshhh, not to Mom I guess!

The MRI was on the 9th.  Mom's good friend Susan took her to this appointment and then to lunch after.  Momma, you got some good friends :)  And the meeting at the hospital with the oncologists was on the 14th.  Fortunately, Dad and all of us chillin's were able to be there and support her and hear for ourselves what the doctors needed to educate us about.

The cancerous lump was only in Stage One, and the few options for exterminating the cancer ninjas both had a 50/50 chance of having the cancer return in the future.  Mom was to choose either a lumpectomy, followed by radiation to the tissue surrounding the area where the cancer was removed from, or a mastectomy followed by the same area-focused radiation.  Either way, the odds of some straggling ninja's showing up again any time in the future were the same.  The doctor also explained that during the process of removal, whichever she chooses, they will go into the under-arm area and remove a teeny tiny lymph node (where the breast drains into the rest of the body), bisect it, and see if any of the cancer had already spread to the rest of the body.  In that case, if cancer was detected there, she would not just be looking at radiation to the area where the cancer was removed, but she would be in for full-body, chemotherapy.  (Lets cross our fingers and pray that there are no ninja's in the lymph nodes!!)

Mom's testimony has grown so much from this experience, and will no doubt continue to grow. As mom explained to me how grateful she is for the tender mercies of our  Heavenly Father, she proclaimed that if she had not physically felt the lump in the first place, we might not have caught it in time and it might be a whole different story we are telling now.  She is ever grateful to the Lord for blessing her to find the lump herself, and that we caught it early enough to defeat those ugly cancer ninja's!  Heavenly Father blesses us by small and simple means, literally.  The breast cancer ninja's live in tissue that is seriously the size of a nickle!  She is one of the strongest women I know and I am so very very proud to call her my mother!

We love you so much Mom and will always be grateful that Heavenly Father allowed us to come to this earth to be your crazy kids!

-Post by Tiffanie