Kyle. Oh, my God...I'm so sorry to hear this. I was so hoping it'd be a benign cyst. Of course I'll send up prayers on your behalf and ::hugs:: to you and your family. We're all here for you, you know that. Email me off-list if there's anything I can do or if you need to rant. Kat -------Original Message------- From: "Cleveland, Kyle E." <[log in to unmask]> Sent: 07/23/03 10:29 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Hey all Ok, now for the bad news. About a month or so ago (I think I let Kat know around the middle of June) I went to see my physician about a lump on my right breast that had been there a while wasn't going away. The initial diagnosis was "gynecomastia" based on an ultrasound and the fact that it was painful. Some things have happened in the meantime to warrant further investigation, and the tentative results I got yesterday that it is, indeed, breast cancer. I see a surgeon tomorrow after a mammogram (NOT looking forward to that--the tech I spoke with said that they are very difficult to do on men, very painful, and she's only done a couple on men in the thousands of mammograms she's performed). The good news is they think the tumor is "encapsulated" and is enclosed in a "sac". If that's the case, there won't likely be any treatment past surgery, and even the surgery will not involved cutting the underlying muscle or lumph nodes. If it's attached to the pectoral muscle underneath, that's a completely different ballgame... So, to those of you who believe in the efficacy of prayer, I'd appreciate it if you'd shoot a couple up on my behalf. If not, I could use a "virtual hug". LOL! >