As October fades, I want to recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month and all the brave people who have battled this disease…those who are Survivor/ Thrivers like me, as well as those strong warriors who didn’t make it. Twenty years this past July, I was diagnosed with early breast cancer. It was discovered in a routine mammogram at age 44. I had no family history, and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had so many fears and questions. My sons were teens at the time, and I wondered if I would get to see them grow up, and get married? Would I see my grandchildren one day? Would I get to grow old with this man I love?
It all began when I returned home from a wonderful vacation to a letter telling me I needed to have a second mammogram. All my friends assured me that this was perfectly routine, and that they had also gotten letters like this. But the day I went for the second mammogram, I realized quickly when the radiologist came back in with the tech, that this was not going to be what I expected. They explained what they were seeing and told me they felt good about what my outcome would be. They also told me that IF I had waited to come in for 2 or 3 years, we could have been looking at a totally different scenario.
The rest of that week I felt like I was in a whirlwind. Second confirming mammogram on Tuesday, a biopsy on Wednesday, the call telling me I did indeed have early breast cancer on Thursday and on Friday morning we were sitting in the office of a world renown breast surgeon. He was very encouraging as well during that first meeting. After weighing the options vs. results, he recommended a lumpectomy, 35 radiation treatments, and 5 years of the drug Tamoxifen. I feel so blessed that it was so easily treated.
Throughout my treatment, and all the years since, I have been so blessed to have the support of so many awesome medical professionals. I know God directed our steps all along the way. I mean it’s almost unheard of to get those medical procedures accomplished in one week, especially to get biopsy results in about 24 hours, and to get a next day appointment with a doctor of the caliber of mine the very next day (just before he was going out of town).
God also blessed me with amazing friends and family to come around me. I remember tearfully asking a friend who had experienced breast cancer a few years earlier if there would ever be a day when I didn’t think about it? She said, yes, you will but it will take a while. My friends and community came together behind me and faithfully helped me raise thousands of dollars for breast cancer research/education for 9 years straight.
My sweet husband Dennis never wavered in his firm belief that I would be just fine. He held my hand all the way from those first scary moments to where I am now, a 20-year Survivor/Thriver. And all those questions I had in the beginning? Yes, I have had the experience of seeing my sons become awesome men successful in their careers and now raising families of their own. Grandkids? Yes!! 5 of them, 3 girls, 2 boys. They are the absolute joy of my heart! As for growing old with my sweetheart? We are 42 and ¾ years into forever, celebrating everyday a love that endures and vows kept even in sickness.
I can never thank God enough for His goodness toward me. There’s a song I love called, “Scars”. It says, “I’m thankful for my scars, for without them I wouldn’t know Your heart.” One of my favorite Scriptures is 2 Corinthians 1:3-4. It talks about how God comforts us in our afflictions and we are to take that same comfort and use it to comfort others going through the same thing. I’ve tried to do that, to use my story to encourage others. I hope He has been pleased with how I have walked this path. I know in my husband’s ministry this experience moved us from sympathy for people going through test, and getting difficult reports, to empathy because we know what it feels like now.
You know, my friend was right. I often go many days, weeks and even months and don’t think about my journey with breast cancer. But I just had to take a moment and send October our on a pink note of remembrance and gratitude.
Don’t forget, mammograms really do save lives, I’m living proof!
