My journey started in October 2013 ( birthday) when i called to set up my mammogram as I do every year. I decided i should do a self exam which i do not do and the first thing I touched was a lump! Shocked but thinking it was a cyst I checked it daily to make sure it was a lump. Called my Nurse practitioner to see if she could get me in sooner. After a mammogram & ultrasound I was told I needed a ultrasound guided biopsy still thinking another cyst! Waiting for biopsy results when one evening I saw my Practitioner pull-up in front of my house- I told my husband "This isn't good!" She was crying coming in my house and I knew it was bad. I have triple negative breast cancer. Grade3-Stage 2. You can truly never be prepared to hear that!! Since then I have had numerous tests and a lumpectomy. They feel all margins are clear and it hasn't gotten in my lymph nodes. I have had 1 chemo 5 more to go then 33 radiation treatments. One thing I have learned is I will now be a teacher about the importance of self -exams and mammograms! I am so blessed with so many loving family and friends and even strangers have reached out to me! It is a scary diagnosis but I plan on kicking cancers ass!

Tammy Nicola
Great falls, MT