Strangest Post I never imagined having to write...and DONE with First Semester!

This is THE strangest post I never thought I would be writing.  But more on that in a moment.

I took my HESI Pharmacology Final on Monday.  It was again, a very tough test that I had no idea if I had passed until my score popped up.  I think I may have mentioned in my previous post about HESI that it is essentially a predictor of how well you will do on the Nursing Licensure test to get your official nursing license to practice (NCLEX).  Soo...drumroll please...I made a 94.8!  Once again, I was really thinking that it would have been much lower, like 60-ish.

Team Awesome, as some of you may have remembered from previous rants has officially been dismembered.  The reason I know this is because one of the members had invited everyone to her house for a "kick up your heels, the semester is over, BYOB"party at her house.  Well, the day of the test she posted on her Facebook that the party was cancelled, "Don't ask why".  WOW!!  She failed!  I can hardly believe my eyes!  Another friend of mine failed, too.  I would not have wished that on her for anything.  She was the one that was teeter-tottering back and forth with Team Awesome.  So I ask the question--maybe she should have continued studying with me.  PUT ASIDE the "cool" friends who have gobs of money and love to flaunt it, and come sit beside me who is in touch with my morals and values and who also still cares about other's feelings.  It's not all about how much MONEY you have, PEOPLE!!!  Now, had this former friend of mine stuck with me would she have done any better in the class?  I think maybe it could be a possibility.  Although I wasn't perfect at Pharmacology, I really knew my drug classes and could put things in perspective  overall.

FINAL GRADES for this semester: 1-A, 3-B's.  I'll take 'em!!  That is fine with me!!  I feel grateful for my opportunity to be in nursing school and do NOT take it for granted.  I am also thankful for the WISDOM that nursing school has given me---which brings me to my next, sad subject....

I have completed my semester and I should be relaxing with a book, enjoying a few of my favorite, long lost shows.  No.  I am dealing with some new health issues.  Potentially horrible health news.

Several months ago I had begun to notice some changes in my left breast.  The symptoms started as sensitivity and then later progressed into burning.  This burning was then followed around Thanksgiving by severe itching.  Now this is not itching that you can scratch.  This is internal itching that you feel like you need to grind your chest into the ground to get rid of, however, I don't even think that would work!  Early last week I noticed a brown discharge coming from the nipple.  I really thought nothing of it other than dry skin, so I put gauze and Bacitracin ointment on it assuming it was an episode of winter dry skin.   When I took the gauze off that night it was covered with a brown, bloody discharge.  Immediate cause for concern.  I told my husband about it and he was concerned, of course, and made me an appointment to see the Doctor the very next day.  So I go in for an exam.  She takes one look and immediately defers the exam and began questioning my maternal history of BREAST CANCER.  My mom has had issues, my grandmother had premenopausal BC, and also her sister (My Aunt Bertha) who had a radical mastectomy due to her BC, and later died from it when I was in first grade.
My treatment plan for now: appointment with general surgery (Decemeber 20) for a possible nipple/areola skin excision for biopsy which will require two stitches (OUCH).  A mammogram on December 22nd followed by a beast ultrasound.
My thoughts on the diagnosis: Paget's Disease of the Nipple.  This is a very rare form of BC which accounts for less than 5% of all BC's.  In most cases Paget's presents itself and there is another underlying form of BC.  Only 1% of cases show no other forms of BC.

So WOW.  This is the post that I never in a million years would have imagined posting.  I have no idea of the progression of this cancer.  Lots of tears have been shed.  I have NOT been officially diagnosed yet, and I hope that with God's good Grace and some miracle, it will not be cancer.  The odds, however, are stacked firmly against me.  I have scoured the internet for information.  All symptoms match up.  In most typical cases patients go to their Doctor who blows off their symptoms for a dermatological condition, and in the mean time the cancer has many months to progress.

My final synopsis: If I had not had been in Nursing School I would have let these symptoms fly.  If I had a a tummy tuck as I had planned for last week that would have hindered the surgical process of skin grafting from my abdomen to create a new breast (if it comes to that).  The best outcome, of course, would be no cancer.   Second best outcome would be removal of the nipple and areola.  Third, and most horrible (besides mortality) is that I would have the entire breast removed and go though radiation therapy.

If anyone has any advice or thoughts, please share.  I have been so depressed.
Until next time...I will post this link if you're interested.  http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Sites-Types/paget-breast