I was diagnosed with Stage IIA Invasive Ductal Carcinoma a little over a month after my 30th birthday and less than two months before my husband and I were finally going to start our family. I had a double mastectomy in Sept 2009, have had 6 rounds of chemo, my reconstruction surgery, and will be starting radiation in a few weeks. For awhile there I was breastless, hairless, and didn't know whether I would ever have children. It is now less than two months after Chemo and I have breast (they aren't real, but they look good and they won't try to kill me), my hair is starting to come back, and just yesterday I came out of the Chemo induced menopause so I should be able to have biological children someday. Throughout all of this I have kept the smile on my face and the spring in my step. I figure that if this is the first day of the rest of my life then I'm going to live it to the fullest. My best advice to anyone battling this disease is to take moments to cry, but be sure that they are just moments. For every half hour you cry, spend two hours laughing. It helps! A LOT! God bless.

Kristy Davis
Schaumburg, IL