Original Email 2-8-10

Family and friends,
Most of you already know about the battle that I am beginning with breast cancer. I will try to update all of you as I learn more about my specific battle, and for now think that email might be the best way to give updates. I am looking into other options that would be similar to a blog, and will let you all know what I find.

To help catch some of you up, I will give you some background. Last week, I met with my doctor to review the results of a biopsy that was performed two weeks ago on a lump in my breast. Unfortunately, I was informed that I have breast cancer, but at that time I had very little detail. I had an appointment today to meet with my surgical and oncology teams, and found out more detail.

With the knowledge of the current tests, I have stage 2 triple-negative invasive ductal carcinoma. This week, I will be undergoing many tests to see if the cancer has spread to any other areas. On Friday, I will have a small surgery for a port to be installed, which will be utilized for chemotherapy. This coming Monday, I will meet with my doctors again to go over the details of the tests that are run this week.

For know the plan is chemo for 16 weeks with 8 treatments. The exact form of surgery after the chemo is still to be determined. The surgery will vary depending on the genetics tests that they are running over the next few weeks.

I'll let you know more, as I find out.

Love you all,
Jess

P.S. Adam will be helping me keep you all up-to-date with these emails. He's translating "Jessica talk" into emails. If you find errors with grammar, please make sure to give him a hard time!