Take Charge of Your Health ™Luxury Lotus Spa

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/ By luxurylotusspa@gmail.com

Hi there -It’s Esther The Esthetician here,

UPDATE: Surgery, Health Scare, What’s Next, and etc.

Hey-Esther TheEsthetician here,

2018 turned out to be a year to remembered! Not in a good way – September 2018 turned out to be the battle for my life.

Before I start, I would like to say thank you sooo much for your patience and encouraging words.

WARNING:

♥ This blog post will have some MAJOR TMI in it… If you’re not interested please don’t continue to read.

What has happened:

I’m a huge believer in self checks and annual checkup. During my annual checkup in 2018… my primary was behind schedule that day she rushed and barely checked my left breast (the side she was standing one) then proceeded to the next thing on the list.

A couple of weeks later while doing my monthly self check where I check around for lumps, bumps, and other things.

I discovered something new on the side of my right breast – near my armpit. I quickly contacted my primary for an appointment.

BRAC PALB2 young Black African American Cancer patient. How I survived breast cancer, cervical cancer, and pancreatic cancer at the age of 31

Because I don’t have a family history of breast cancer that I know of – my primary thought it was just “hormones” and was confident it was nothing to worry about and “should go away on its own”…

A few months went and I noticed that it was growing instead of decreasing in size. I scheduled a followup with my primary doctor – who had me questioning my sanity.

I ended up working with a new doctor in the same clinic… I notified her of the symptoms, she did a routine check and immediately rushed out of the room after telling me to “hang on tight I’ll be back “.

After a few minutes, the nurse came and escorted me out to the lobby to wait – so she could use the room to start working with the next patient.

About 20 minutes went by and no was telling me anything. Now, let me tell you… I was BEYOND annoyed at that time however, I saw they were pretty busy and tried to take that into consideration!

After about 30 minutes – no one told me what was going on however, they kept on telling me to “have a seat and hang on tight.”

Eventually, after demanding more information… one of the nurses informed me to “You cannot leave until you get the referral papers from the doctor”

to make a long story short… They eventually gave me a referral for a Mammogram & Ultrasound at a local radiology clinic… Let me tell you, MAMMOGRAMS was SOOOOOOOOOO DAMN PAINFUL! lol

After it was said and done my results were sent back to my primary care doctor and later I received mail from the new doctors for the referral to go and see a surgeon that specializes in breast surgeries.

After speaking with the specialist/surgeon… he looked over everything and confirmed that I had “nothing to worry about” however, since the mass was sticking out on the side and visible to the naked eye… he scheduled a procedure to biopsy the mass – send to the lab for testing.

The mass I would like to mention always hurts during the time of the month was not movable which was a clear good sign of breast cancer to me!

IMPORTANT:

Get to know your body, do you self-checks….. If you ever notice something that doesn’t sit right with you- DON’T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER! Get another opinion from a different doctor(s).

results came back confirming I was dealing with an aggressive form of 98% Estrogen Positive Breast Cancer with a Ki67 of 92%.

Ki-67: Ki-67 is a protein in cells that increases as they prepare to divide into new cells.
A staining process can measure the percentage of tumor cells that are positive for Ki-67.
Ki67 is a stain that shows how aggressive the tumor grows.
With cell growth a result of less than 6% is considered low, 6-10% intermediate, and more than 10% is considered high.
My levels were at 92%!!

In less than a month… I was going around from one test to the next and starting my first Chemo Treatment!

A genetics test shows that I have a BRAC2 mutation known as PALB2.

Breast-Cancer, Pancreatic Cancer, and Cervical Cancer Risk are high in Families with Mutations in PALB2.

The PALB2 gene is called the partner and localizer of the BRCA2 gene.
BRAC2 It provides instructions to make a protein that works with the BRCA2 protein to repair damaged DNA and stop tumor growth.
If both parents have PALB2… They may want to reconsider having kids.

What’s New:

Currently focusing on this new journey that’s ahead for me.

With the help of my family and friends, I will continue selling and shipping from my online store www.LuxuryLotusSpa.com/Shop to help with costs. I will continue to write-out the thank you cards myself.

I spend most of my days in doors and in bed dealing with chemo side effects, joint pain, and trying to avoid becoming even more sick – My immune system simply isn’t the same.