Okay, most of you know that I do a lot of work with parents on how to deal with those lovely toddler/preschool tantrums. And I’m not talking about the typical ones, I’m talking about the kids who have the really intense, long, and frequent tantrums. I get a 4 year-old who comes in, gets told “no”, and just loses it. It’s very scary to see and hear a child out of control like this and it is understandable that parents can feel really powerless. After the dust settles, a joke I often tell at these times to put things back in perspective is, “Yes, it’s very scary when a child is out of control like that. But remember, he’s a little kid. If worse comes to worst, you can always sit on him.”

So, why I am I telling this story? Well, I’ve had trouble explaining to people (and myself) how my long-term prognosis can be so positive, when I’m going to need at least one more surgery. My long term prognosis is positive because my cancer is not aggressive and whatever is still in there, is just in my breast. It hasn’t gone to my lymph system or into my blood. But MRI and mammography did not pick up on the 2.5 cm of stage 0 cancer they found in the breast tissue they removed from my body. (I am guessing that my breast tissue will be easier to read when I become menopausal because “busy breast” is supposed to be very common in pre-menopausal women and to “mellow out” with age. But that could take a significant number of years.) Although stage 0 cancer is not invasive can’t kill me, there is no guarantee that it won’t develop into an invasive cancer. And given that they found two small invasive tumors in the area, they know that my breast already knows how to make invasive cancer.

My cancer is tantruming and putting up a fuss. But it is still little enough to contain so they are “sitting on it”, so to speak. I am hoping this surgery takes care of things but if not, I will get a mastectomy and then later reconstruction surgery. The mastectomy is major surgery so it would mean taking 4-6 weeks off from work. This is not my preference, actually my preference is not to have cancer at all, but I think it would be the right choice for me if it comes to that.