In Dec 2008 at age 28 I was diagnosed with cancer in my left breast. Exactly a week later I had a mastectomy, and from there I had chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hospitalised for Meningitis and then finally in December 2009 I underwent a prophylactic mastectomy of my right breast with immediate reconstruction and a reconstruction of my left breast using the latissimus dorsi.
The hardest part of all of this was being a mother and a wife at the same time. At the time of diagnosis my daughter was only 11 months old and i found it really hard to no longer be able to be her primary care-giver and to not have her with me all the time. Having said that however I am extremely grateful that she is to young to remember what happened and how sick i really was. She won't remember that for a few months of her life she had to be babysat more often than I would normally have liked.
I have now started back at work partime and although i find i'm still tired at times, it feels great to earn money again and be back in that professional environment and start to feel like me again.
At the time of my diagnosis I found that I struggled to find not only stories but photographs of young women my age that were going through the same thing. I wanted to know where my scars were going to be and how sick i was really going to get so i've started to put my story into a blog, with not only my story but my photographs as well (sarahsbreastcancerstory.blogspot.com). Kitty from Huntington MD I read your story on here which prompted me to write this. I hope my blog can help you.
Wollongong, Australia