The Beginning

Well, First off I would like to thank my sister Marie for inspiring me to create my own blog. Normally, this would not be something that I would remotely be interested in, but since she began hers, I see how it really can touch others. I feel more and more connected to her and her family, which by the way, I have the most adorable nieces on this earth!!!

See I told you they were cute!! That will be just a few of the many pics of them I post! Anyway it has been great seeing what is going on with them. Although, too much of it has been about me lately and I really hate that! Hopefully this will help myself and others cope with the situation at hand. For those of you that really don't know my story, here it goes.

I was diagnosed on March 23, 2004 with Stage 3 Breast Cancer at the age of 28. I immediately began chemo and it continued until August 25th 2004. Thankfully my body took the chemo well as it had reduced one tumor nearly in half and the other tumor disappeared. Because of that, I was able to have a lumpectomy on September 23rd instead of a mastectomy. Once healed, I began radiation until December 11th. There was a total of 33 treatments of radiation in all. My skin was dry, but I had a really nice tan!!!

I really felt violated in some ways. Here I was 28 years old and they were talking about taking my breast away, possibly never having children and to top it off, my hormones were out of whack!! No one should have to go through that at that age. Not sure why I had to go through that, but the one thing I realized was that God knew that I was strong enough to handle it.

Well, I survived that ordeal and was able to keep my breast. Still not sure if I could have kids or not, but I have been able to move beyond that. My hormones began to level off a little and I wasn't having the hot flashes so often and so fierce!! My Doctors had me on a schedule. Every 6 months I would have a mammogram and a CT/PET scan and I would see my oncologist every 3 months. After about a year, they were cut down a little. Mammograms were still every 6 months, but the CT/PET scans were only once a year and my Dr visits were cut down to every 4 months. PROGRESS!!!! I was finally starting to feel like a normal person. I hated having to go to my boss each month and give her a list of all my Doctor appointments. Although she understood, I just hated it!!!

This brings us to this month. August. I am just a few months shy of saying that I am 2 years of being cancer free when I had my routine mammogram.

August 1st 2006. I am in the little room with other women, which I always feel a bit awkward since I am the youngest one there, and of course conversation gets going. As always I get asked how old I am and why I was there. Gladly I share my story with the ladies cause I am a SURVIVOR and proud of it!!! There was another older lady there that had ovarian cancer when she was 19 and had to have a hysterectomy. Now she has found some lumps in her and they are checking them out. Others are there for routine mammograms or follow ups. One lady there said how horrible this all was and we all are making the situation worse for everyone by talking about it. Both the lady and I looked at her and I said, "Don't think of it that way. Think of it as this lady has survived 50 years and I am also a survivor. It doesn't always have to have a bad ending." The lady with ovarian cancer agreed with me as she too was a very positive person. They all agreed and I felt good that maybe I gave some hope to someone there that may have been diagnosed after I left. After all, I truly believe that is why God allowed me to have cancer. To be a positive influence on others that are also battling this horrible disease.

My time had come....... I really dreaded this part. They could take pictures of my left breast all day long, but I absolutely hated my right breast being put in that machine to squish. Talk about pain!! It would bring me to tears each time. I guess it is from all the scar tissue and stuff, but all I know is that it HURTS!!!! So I am all done and I go back to the little waiting room to have the radiologist review the films. I get called back to talk to the radiologist. At this point, I know that it is not good. Normally if everything looks fine, they send you on your way. They had me sit down and the radiologist proceeds to tell me that they found some micro-calcifications in the same area that I once had cancer and I needed to have this removed as soon as possible. Tears clouded my eyes as I was trying to process everything that she was saying. "In most cases, this is normal and there is no cancer, but with your history it is better to be safe." Well I had arranged for my mammogram first thing in the morning so that I could go straight to work. Appointment at 745am, I should be in work no later that 9am. Besides I work right across the street from the hospital. By 10am even my boss knew what I was about to tell her. She began looking things up on the internet, which then sparked me to do some of my own research. Micro-califications are normal, but could be signs of early breast cancer. It echoed in my head. Early signs of breast cancer. I knew at that moment that I had it again, but I was not wanting to verbalize it yet.

The following Wednesday, I had a routine PET Scan. My Right breast, my left ovary and a spot on my spine lit up. They think that the spot on my spine is just arthritis, but the other 2 are very iffy. I had surgery on my right breast this past Wednesday August 23rd for them to remove the areas and to do a biopsy. I am now waiting for the results for that, which I should have by Monday. Once I have those results, I will be able to put a game plan together. I have to have my left ovary removed, so if I do have cancer they want to remove it before I do chemo.

That brings us to now. I know that this was a very lengthy entry, but I figure that if I want to do this, then I need to do it right!! Hopefully I will have the results on Monday and if so, I will be sure to update this.