I'm A 9 Year Survivor

October 6. 2001... 9 years ago I found a lump in my right breast. I couldn't believe what I was feeling. I had a lumpectomy in November the week after Thanksgiving. The doc removed the fat pad in my armpit which had 22 lymph nodes that were all clear. Met with the Oncologist on January 2, 2002. Back to the surgeon on February 4th for my port-a-cath for the chemo and to have another lump removed in the same breast. Began chemo on Febuary 7th, 2002. 6 rounds of poison, a triple cocktail of drugs Adriamycin, aka the red devil, Cytoxan and Fluorouracil. Before you begin this, you have to have bone scans, then a MUGA scan, this makes sure your heart is strong enough for you to survive the chemo. You don't know what damage is done til later on in life, I pray no damage was done to my heart.

After the chem, I had 38 radiation treatments, the last 6 were super blasts. It was 5 days a week til the 38 were complete. I still have the little blue dots tattoed on me so they knew where to direct the radiation and hopefully not do damage to my heart and lungs.

In September 2002, I began taking Tamoxifen for 5 years. This was to block my body from making estrogen which caused my cancer to start with. 2 1/2 years in, the Oncologist switched me to Arimidex for a full 5 years. Fast forward to March 2010, I finished the Arimidex and he realease me. I asked if I could still come once a year for bloodwork to check my tumor markers and for him to give me the once over. He said yes. Mind you I saw my doctor every 3 months for the longest, then every 6 months til he was ready to cut me loose. That is a very scary feeling not to have your safety net beneath you. That is why I still want to have a yearly visit.

Throughout all of this journey I prayed for God to heal my body and the doctors helped. It has been a long road but I made it. I had a very positive attitude and know without a doubt this helped me too. Thank you God! Many thanks to my doctors and nurses at Watson Clinic.

My mother had breast cancer, so did her sister. My maternal grandmother had pancreatic cancer. To ease my mind I had the BRCA test done to see if I carry the breast cancer gene. I DO NOT!!! Again, thank you God! I can't pass this to my daughter, if she should ever get breast cancer it won't be because she inherited it. She nneds to mammograms a little earlier than most, exercise and watch her diet. I pray God watches over her and keeps her healthy. It has been a wild ride and don't care to ever do it again!