Today's Public Service Announcement

Also previously stated, I'm a breast cancer survivor. I hadn't been very public about what I went through. As a matter of fact, while going through chemo the local news station wanted to do a story about me, but I turned it down because I didn't want the attention. Yes, at that moment I was fighting for my life here at home, but I had a husband fighting for his life over in Iraq & I thought his story was bigger. I've been told sevral times that my story needs to be published somewhere.... so why not start here?
I wasn't aware that I had a family history of breast cancer. It turned out my aunt (my mother's older sister)had it & died when I was youg from the recurrance of it. I really wish my mom would have let us know earlier on in life that it was in our family history. All I ever knew about was diabetes & high blood pressure.Anyway, I'm not sure I would even have the time to tell you the complete story! lol In short, I gave birth to my daughter in Dec. 2002. Then in 2003 I found I was pregnant again. But before I could get to the 1st pre-natal exam I had a miscarriage. I went to Planned Parenthood 2 months later for the routine Pap Smear & the nurse discovered I had a lump during the breast exam. She said it felt large ( I couldn't feel it... I had very large breasts at the time) and I should get a mammogram. I didn't have insurance & had trouble finding anyplace to have one done, especially since I was only 32 year old. As luck would have it, I found a hospital coupon to have one done for $50! They also did an ultrasound since the lump was 'suspicious'. From that they determined they couldn't tell if it was cancerous or not, so they tell me I should get it biopsied. And by some miracle I discover that was no regular miscarriage I had 2 months prior- that was the loss of a twin! So since I am still pregnant I was able to get state medicaid. Got the biopsy & it determined I was in stage 2 breast cancer-I forget the correct term, but it was in the ducts. As if my world weren't crashing down hard enough on me, I got this news 2 days after my husband found out his Naval unit was scheduled for deployment to Iraq in the following 2 weeks! During the lumpectomy they found it was also in 6/9 lymph nodes. My husband was allowed to come home for a visit before they actually 'shipped off' & I was scheduled for induction of labor, after all- I needed to start chemo ASAP & I couldn't do that w/ the baby still inside, right? BTW- my son was born 6 wks premature, but is doing just fine... didn't even need the NICU after delivery! I went through the 3 rounds of A/C, 3 months of Taxol, 33 rounds of Radiation, & 52 weeks of Herceptin treatment. I've had just about every side effect you will hear mentioned associated with chemo. During my Taxol treatment I had another mammogram that showed calcified tumors which could turn cancerous at anytime. My dr. gave me the option of having mammograms every 6 months to monitor them or a mastectomy. I opted for the bilateral mastectomy this time with reconstruction. Unfortunately the reconstruction also introduced me the wonderful world of Staph infection!

Thankfully all that mess is pretty much over now. No more chemo...the tingling in my fingers & toes have stopped, my hair is growing back, & most importantly I'M STILL ALIVE! The only big thing left to face is another surgery to remove the port & remove the other implant. Please pray my heart is strong enough to go through this without complication! I never thought I would be the 1/18 women having to face breast cancer at a young age. I didn't think I was at risk at all, but if given the chance I don't think I would change much of anything I went through. mostly because I feel God may be using me to help other young women to know this is not something that happens to 40 and over anymore. I am here to show that life is not over after diagnosis at such a young age. Actually, I have a friend that I met at the clinic during chemo who actually had a baby in the next year after chemo, so it's not necessarily the end of your family planning either!

I would like to thank you for reading this far... & please remember to check yourselves each month.
EARLY DETECTION SAVES LIVES!

This is me & the kids last Spring on one of my good days, showing off my new hair!