Hey, I’m Kirsty and I’m 26 years old and recently diagnosed with invasive breast cancer (stage 2, grade 3, HER2 +, with medullary features<whatever that means) trying to be super positive and kick cancers ass!
I found a lump in my breast in June 2021, it was actually the day after my first Covid vaccine (not blaming it, that would be a very quick time frame to get a lump) I went to the dr the next day and was told it was a cyst but got put on the non-emergency mammogram wait list. Fast forward to my second Covid jab in august and again the day after it was inflamed and sore so I go to dr again and it’s doubled in size, they still think it’s a cyst but so thankfully I get moved to the emergency wait list, which was just a few weeks rather than quite a few months.
I went to my appointment on the 10th of September and thought I was just going there for peace of mind and to get the cyst drained, I didn’t even take anyone with me (also because of Covid) but after I’d been there for hours getting ultrasounds and mammograms and 6 biopsies on my breast and lymph nodes they told me there were abnormal cells and they thought it was lymphoma, I actually got told it wasn’t breast cancer but probably a non cancerous lump in my breast or something else and lymphoma in my lymph nodes. So was pretty scared it could be two cancers. I got the call a few weeks later to say it was infact breast cancer that had spread to my lymph nodes, so I guess I was a bit relieved it wasn’t lymphoma but now I had a new thing to wrap my head around and research.
The plan for now is 6 cycles of chemo, three weeks apart each. With scans etc after the first 3 to see how it’s working. The first 3 are to be EC and the second 3 being T with PH hormone therapy as I am HER2 positive, and negative for the other two. Then surgery to remove the tumour from my breast and some lymph nodes hopefully just some of both depending how the chemo goes, then finally the possibility of radiation if still some cancer left but that’s waaay down the line yet.
It felt like such a long journey from finding the lump to actually knowing what it was and even longer to know what the plan was as the above I didn’t find out until the 1/11/21 but I understand there must be a lot of decisions and discussions that need to had first
ps - I’m writing this having now having hard my third chemo but wanted to split it up a bit. Otherwise this was going to be a long post
stay strong guys, you’ve got this 
