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Hi Cannon, my wife, Nicola, during a routine mammo. in early 2004, showed microcalcifications in one breast, stage 0. She had a stereotactic lumpectomy and 20-some rads. to the site. Two surgeries to check margins came back clear and all tests came back good. Then, late November, 2005, she had severe abdominal pain. We went to our GP, an excellent doctor, who ordered an ultrasound for the next morning. He said it seems like gall-bladder trouble. We went to the hospital for the ultrasound, and during the procedure, Nikki asked the technician what she saw. The tech. said she wasn't supposed to analyze that info. and give it to the patient, but we talked her into it. She said the gall-bladder definitely looked bad. Nikki then asked how her liver looked. The tech. said the liver looked good. Nikki's sister had said that gall-bladder trouble can indicate a problem with the liver. Then, the next day, they scheduled the gall-bladder removal. We called the surgeon who had done her lumpectomy and margin checks to do the procedure. I didn't know it at the time, but he was also chief surgeon of the hospital and was always voted "best in his field" in our area. The gall-bladder removal was supposed to take about an hour and a half. After 2 hours, I got worried, then after 3 and a half hours I was scared to death. Then the doc., one of the most amazing men I've ever met, walked up to me in the waiting room, with tears in his eyes, and led me into the "private room". He said he had some bad news and I said what? He put his hand on my shoulder, looked me in the eye, and said,"she's got cancer in her liver". I asked if he was sure, and he said yes he was sure, and he said, "this just doesn't happen." He went on to explain that in 20 years of surgery only one other time had he gone in for a gall-bladder removal and found cancer in the liver, and he couldn't even remember the other time. I asked how many lesions there were, and he said he didn't count them. After that day, it was just always "numerous lesions". Nikki, like Chrisy, and a few others, went from stage 0 to stage IV. Her liver biopsy showed the cancer to be breast cancer, but she never showed any cancer in her breasts, other than the DCIS in 2004. She never had any shoulder blade pain that I can recall. I'm sorry for the long-winded reply. I wasn't even going to respond, but then I thought it might help someone. But please bear in mind, Nikki's situation was an extremely rare occurence. Love, Bill
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