Sunday July 10, 2011 I felt a large lump in my left breast and went to bed thinking that it was just an infection like I had years ago. July 11th had a 10 am appt w/my primary care physician, 1 pm a mammogram, 1:30 pm an ultrasound, 3 pm a biopsy. The doctor's words were "I don't expect this to come back as anything but negative" in anticipation of it being a fibroadenoma. Tuesday at 2 pm I called for the results completely confident all was well. The surgeon told me it came back positive and offered to meet me in his office that evening after hours to discuss what needed to be done. By that point I had already decided on a mastectomy because the lump was so large it would have left the breast deformed. But the doctor said my wanting a double mastectomy was being too aggressive. Wednesday was an MRI, Thursday were CT and PET scans. Fortunately the cancer had not spread and I felt like I hit the lottery. Friday I had a surgery date for 7/26 - 1 week after my 50th b'day. Everyone was amazed at how quickly the testing and diagnosis were completed and for that I'm grateful. I don't know how people wait days or weeks for their results that might change their lives forever. I cannot tell you how God carried me through that time and the months to come and how He surrounded me with family and friends every step of the way. My kids fought over who was going to take me to chemo! Triple negative cancer, six chemo treatments, 35 radiation visits and I'm 3 years out ... 5 is the magic number because then my chances of a recurrence are like that of any other woman. By the way, the mastectomy was the right choice because they found a very small lump that had remained undetected. I can honestly say that I'm not sorry it happened because of all the blessings that came from my journey. God is good all the time.

Denise Santeramo
Durham, NC