"Medical Mumbo Jumbo"

After wading through the big words on the surgical pathology report, I saw some easy ones that I didn't like, such as "poorly" and "unfavorable."

The phrase I understood was "Invasive Ductal Carcinoma." That is the most common type of breast cancer. It starts in the ducts and then spreads to surrounding tissue. I did not like the word "invasive."

The word "poorly" was in reference to my cells. They are either well-differentiated (which is apparently best), moderately-differentiated or poorly-differentiated (which is the least favorable type). It also stated "unfavorable nuclear grade." I found out that basically means the nucleus doesn't look good and is a grade 3 (on a scale of 1 to 3). This has to do with the aggressiveness of the cancer. I can't say any of this seemed like a bright spot to me at the time.

My Dad showed the report to a pathologist friend of his at work. He handed it back to my Dad and said "This is very bad, but at least it is treatable." I didn't like the first part of that sentence, but the last three words started to make things look a little brighter.