My official diagnosis was invasive stage IV breast cancer...in medical speak, which I'm learning...LOL...in laymen's terms, it means the cancer cells (otherwise known as the evil critters) got out of my breast and slithered their way into other places, specifically in my case, the bone, liver, and lymph nodes....now interestingly enough, the evil critters weren't exactly living in a normal breast cancer environment cuz they didn't house themselves in a tumor, but rather a cyst that had a non-cancerous shell...my brilliant surgeon (and I mean that, he really is) said that what I had in my breast was more what develops in the ovaries...go figure, even my cancer has to be odd...the treatment I chose, by my brilliant oncologist's suggestion, was chemotherapy...LOTS of ICKY poisonous chemo drugs surging thru my system...one of my fabulous nurses (seeing a theme with the adjectives I use to describe the people who are saving my life?) explained it like little PacMans (I took notice to that since it was my favorite 80's game) that are let loose in my system devouring the evil critters...c'mon, I know you wanna, go ahead and make the 'wonka wonka' noise that the little PacMen made!!
