In the summer of 2007, I had gained about 15 pounds that I couldn't lose, no matter how little I ate or how much I exercised. I KNEW something was wrong, but I didn't know what. I went to my PCP in Nov. and he ran a bunch of tests, thyroid, etc. and everything came back normal. Around the end of Nov. I was in the shower and felt a lump under my left arm. I work in the medical field, so I knew it was a lymph node. I also knew this wasn't a good thing. My first thought was Cancer, and then I thought, please let it be Breast Cancer, not Lymphoma if it has to be cancer. So I felt around my left breast, and sure enough, buried deep, I could feel something. I figured I'd wait until after the holidays, but just before Christmas, Dec. 17th, I mentioned it to my best friend, who made me promise to call my PCP right away. I called the next morning, and he took me the following morning. He told me not to tell him where I felt the lump. He felt the right side, and said that felt fine, then he felt the left side. He said "Oh, that's really big" and ran out of the exam room, leaving his nurse and I looking at each other! (My poor doc is very nervous!) He came back in, told me I was going for a mammogram right then, and then an ultrasound. They did the mamo with tons of extra films, and then when I went for the ultrsound, they really concentrated on my axilla (armpit). Of course they don't tell you anything at this time. My PCP had scheduled me for an appt. with a surgeon. She ordered a biopsy. They found 2 malignant tumors in my left breast, the primary one being 3.9CM and the other was 1.7CM. Also, my surgeon told me that 9 out of 16 lymph nodes were cancerous, 1 was crushed. So I asked her if it was stage 2, she told me no, stage 3 for sure, but couldn't tell if it had metastisized until I had a bunch of tests, and wouldn't know staging for sure until surgery. I had all the tests, chest x-ray, bone scan, MRI's CT scans etc. When the biopsy came back it was ER+ PR+ and HER2/NEU-. It hadn't spread anywhere else from what they could tell. I was sent to an oncologist. She told me I'd have to have chemotherapy first-4 cycles of AC and then 4 cycles of taxotere, then she told me they would try to shrink the tumors so I could have a lumpectomy if possible. I told her I had no intention of having a lumpectomy, I wanted a mastectomy-In fact, I wanted a bilateral mastectomy. Then we talked about reconstructive surgery if i wanted it. I got through the chemo, continued to work, and take care of my daughter, who was 9 at the time, had the bilateral mastectomy, and expander placement (I opted for the reconstruction) then 32 radiation treatments, and once I healed from that I had the expanders out and the silicone implants put in. I'm just waiting until my scars heal to have the nipples tattoed on, as I decided against nipple reconstruction.