I finally got back the results of the Signatera test.
Official definition: the Signatera test is a blood test that can detect molecular residual disease (MRD) or recurrent cancer. The test looks for circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), which are small fragments of DNA released by cancer cells. The test is custom-designed for each patient based on their unique set of tumor mutations.
And my results are negative, no tumor DNA was found so far circulating in my blood.
| Component | Your Value | Standard Range |
|---|---|---|
| WBC | 2.23 K/uL | |
| RBC | 3.50 M/uL | |
| HGB | 10.9 g/dL | |
| HCT | 32.1 % | |
| PLT | 142 K/uL |
The next steps would be to do an MRI and a CT scan to see if the metastases have spread to any other part of the body. But, alas, it is Friday evening, so she plans to work with scheduling all of these tests sometime next week.
"Have a great weekend," to be brief and to the point.
Oh joy, what a delightful surprise to receive a cancer diagnosis at the end of Friday! It's the perfect way to end a long week, isn't it? You can just sleep it off over the weekend and wake up fresh as a daisy on Monday, ready to tackle the next step in your journey. Nothing like a little cancer to add some excitement to your life, am I right?
Good thing that I have a stable psyche and to some degree I was prepared, because of all of my self-diagnostics with Doctor Google.
And I am off to Doctor Google to figure out what is the "triple negative cancer". This is a less common, fast-growing type of cancer, with a limited number of treatment options that occurs in 12%-15% of the population, with high likelihood of reoccurring...
Now I will wait for the official explanation with the oncology team in a week, shouldn't just trust some Google search.
After the ultrasound scan and the pictures on the screen of several noticeable black masses, especially in the lymph nodes, and while waiting for results, I did the next best thing -- doctor Google. 
Several hours later, I already self-diagnosed myself with breast cancer, but decided to wait for the official biopsy results and not to panic too early.
Biopsy results are not quick as they take multiple sample tissues and than the pathologist regrows the cells to figure out if the cells are cancerous, and, if yes, what type.
As per instructions, I signed up for the Lahey portal and now would get results notifications the same day they became available -- so wouldn't need to wait for the doctor to view them and then reach out to me several days later.
2 days later, 10/31 the results were in: inconclusive, require follow up diagnostic and ultrasound mammogram as we knew from the get go....
Spent several days writing and calling my primary care doctor to get that additional referral.
Now, in my head, it would make sense to just do a biopsy right-a-way, as the ultrasound is required in order to get the tissues anyway and the lump is there and the only way to figure out if it is benign or not is via biopsy.
But nothing is that easy or logical -- according to the protocol, I first need to get a regular ultrasound and only after that get another referral to be able to schedule a biopsy.
The first available regular ultrasound appointment was 11/18, because, it seems, there is a shortage of ultrasound technicians.
