Cancer runs in my family. I lost my dad to bladder cancer in 1999 and my mom to breast cancer in 2010.
During the summer of 2012 I knew there was something in my left breast but I brushed it off as a clogged milk duct from nursing my youngest son.
After putting it off for several months, I finally went to the doctor and had my yearly exam. After my appointment, the doctor sent me to get an ultrasound and a mammogram. After another week of tests, scans, and a breast biopsy, on November 16, 2012, I received the phone call I had been dreading. The test results were in and it didn't look good. I spent the next several hours crying and praying. Another ultrasound, a bone biopsy, and a few days later, I finally had a diagnosis: Stage 3 Breast and Stage 4 Bone-Only Cancer. The cancer started as a mass in my left breast and spread into my lymph nodes, into the bones across my back and down into my left hip. My oncologist started me on a cancer pill, and radiation therapy for my hip. Radiation helped my hip but the pill didn't do anything so he started me on a chemotherapy infusion, and so far it has been working because the tumor is shrinking and the cancer hasn't spread much, if at all.
Now here we are, almost a year since my first cancer diagnosis and I have had more surgeries and procedures during this past year than I have my entire life. I have had CTs, MRIs, PETs, Ultrasounds, Biopsies, Blood Work, and enough chemotherapy and medications to overdose a horse, but I keep fighting. I would not be able to do this without my husband, our daughter, our two sons, and all of our friends and family that have been so supportive through all of this past year.
I continue to fight because I can and I will continue to fight as hard as I can for as long as I can because I am Strong and I Will Beat This!!
Glendale, AZ
