And so it begins...

I have to admit I am a tad nervous about doing this. I have butterflies in my tummy as I type but it is something I want and need to do, and I hope if anyone reads this, you will get something out of it. Whether that be to understand my journey so far (if your a friend or family member) or if you have been unfortunate enough to be diagnosed with this awful disease called breast cancer.

My name is Tania, I have 51 years old, a wife and a mother to two beautiful daughters who are the absolute light of my life.

My own personal journey with breast cancer began in October 2015...yes, just last year but it feels like so much has happened within this short space of time. After going to have a mammogram done, I was called back for further tests and subsequently they discovered I had grade 2 breast cancer in both breasts - a 40mm lump in the right and a 14mm in the left breast. To hear those words being uttered "I'm sorry to tell you, you have breast cancer". I remember promptly bursting into tears, and I don't cry lightly, especially in front of other people. I looked at my husband and he looked dumbfounded, and my beautiful youngest daughter had tears streaming down her face. And of course if I had to get breast cancer, I had to get it in both boobs!! Unbloody believable....it was unreal, this couldn't be happening to me. Even while I had to wait however long it was between the tests and getting the results, I had pretty much convinced myself everything would be ok. How many women get called back for further tests and get the all clear??? Surely I would be one of them...surely not as it turned out.  The next words I heard was "your going to be a breast cancer survivor" and so I hung onto those words with both hands for days, for weeks while having to go around telling those closest to me this devastating news. Apparently if I was to get breast cancer, grade 1 or 2 are the best kind to get. They are treatable - to be unluckily enough to be diagnosed with grades 3 or 4, it would be a whole different story.

As it turns out, it is a whole different story.

I have since been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. I think this is also referred to as stage 4 breast cancer. My oncologist (imagine having your own oncologist...we tend to refer to things like 'my car', 'my family', 'my dinner', not 'my oncologist) anyhow, my oncologist told me from the getgo I needed to learn the correct terminology, and so 'metastatic breast cancer' it is. How I hate it...

I'm going to leave it there for now...I am really tired, and it is quite tiring rehashing all this again. 

I hope to have a bit of a fiddle around so I can figure how to put up photo's etc to make it a bit more interesting even if it is just me looking at it.
Anyhow night night, and stay well.