“I’m often asked the same question. ‘What was your reaction to the news?!’If you really really want to know, I was ecstatic. I knew I had cancer. Something lit up in me like a light bulb. A vision of me on my death bed. I remember a tear dropping in remembrance of my mother. The joy of knowing that after losing her at age 14, I could finally meet her again. There I stood, 25, receiving the best news of my life, standing in a bus, in pain, weak.”
‘I stepped onto the bus and felt a ‘release.’ A warm sensation and then a POP. I lost my balance, my eyes closed shut.’: Woman beats breast cancer after losing her mother
‘Go home. You’re cured.’ The same day there was an urgent message on my phone. I didn’t want to spoil Christmas.’: Woman diagnosed with Stage 4 breast, lung, liver cancer, ‘I decided to take back control’
“I genuinely thought it would all be fine. I ate a healthy diet, was fit and healthy. I just couldn’t believe it. I was in a trance. Numb. There was yet another tumor, in a third place. I rang the cancer helpline. I tried to speak, but just cried. The poor person on the end just listened to me sob for 15 minutes without a break. I needed to get it all out of my system.”
‘It was not even on my radar that my lumpy boob could be a cancer boob. How naive I was.’: Mom in her 30s diagnosed with breast cancer, warns ‘Don’t be me. Don’t ignore it’
“I had a giant, pain-in-the-rear tumor growing for years. YEARS. I am smart and with it. I’m one of those moms who is always trying her darndest to make the very best decisions for her family. And yet, I missed a giant tumor. I had for sure felt it before. I was pregnant and nursing on and off for 8 years. My body was always changing, and I was keeping the small people alive. It was so easy to chalk it up to body changes and move on.”
‘You know this isn’t a bad boob job, right?’ They saw my cancer scars and erupted in laughter.’: Woman beats breast cancer, new symptoms dismissed as ‘overreacting’ turn out to be colon cancer
“I felt so embarrassed. I started putting makeup on my scars and wearing only tube top bikinis. I started wearing a bra all the time and wouldn’t remove it during intimate times with my husband. I went from cancer free and ecstatic about the surgery results, to mortified to even show my breasts.”
‘I found out the Friday before Thanksgiving. ‘OK, I can do this. Everyone is coming here for dinner. I will put a smile on my face, and we will have a good celebration. Who was I kidding, though?’
“They gathered around me, each taking turns cutting off locks of my hair to send in for a wig. I was always the one cutting my kids hair. I never thought I would be put in the chair. As I sat, I cried alone as my eyelashes fell out into my weeping eyes.”
‘My mom was standing beyond the door, a distraught look on her face. I could tell something horrible happened. ‘I’m sorry to tell you this.’ The initial shock was like a punch to the gut.’
“I was sure it was one of my cat’s that had been killed, but it was far worse than I ever could’ve imagined. I fell to the floor, shaking. ‘How could this be?,’ I screamed. It was cold-blooded murder.”
‘My son was told, ‘You can’t read. Don’t even try.’ Waves of emotion rolled through me. I walked out of the parent-teacher conference in tears.’
“His teacher handed me a big stack of unfinished classwork. ‘He is not working and he daydreams all day.’ After two days of observing our son, the doctor gave us the news.”
‘It was massive, like carrying a lemon inside my boob. ‘Not me,’ I said. ‘No way, I have no family history of it.’ Now I was faced with another alarming decision. Boobs or no boobs?’
“I asked the doctor, ‘What happened to flat?’ He replied, ‘I thought you might change your mind.’ As I sat there blinking in awe, I thought to myself, ‘This guy is nuts, I can’t even speak.”
‘Sure, it’s easy to sign up for a walk or sport a pink ribbon – but, do you want to know what most women with breast cancer despise? All. Of. That. Sh*t.’
“Do you know what is said when a woman dies from breast cancer? That she ‘lost’ a battle. No, she didn’t. She lost everything, but not a battle. This is NOT in our hands. We don’t lose because we aren’t strong enough, we die because there is no cure.”
