My Breast Cancer Story
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Ladies & Gentlemen, PLEASE schedule your mammogram!!!
The day my world changed forever. June 15th, 2017 at 3:00 p.m. I received a call late morning from The Women’s Clinic telling me that they needed to see me that day and that I needed to bring my husband or someone with me to the appointment. I knew what that meant. Both my physicians were gone on vacation so a gal named Stesha had to break the news to me. I remember her telling me that she felt terrible that a stranger had to tell me that I had Breast Cancer. Although I was devastated with the news and I will never forget that day, I was very impressed with UC Health Cancer Clinic. An appointment was made for me the next day with my oncologist as well as appointments for the following week (genetic counselor, more ultrasound imaging and a plastic surgeon). Fortunately, the cancer was caught early and not aggressive - Estrogen positive, Hers2 negative.
The amount of information and thoughts flooded my mind for weeks to come. The decisions I needed to make were overwhelming. I was a candidate for a lumpectomy but against my oncologist and surgeon’s wishes, I chose to have a double mastectomy with no reconstruction. My oncologist and surgeon also thought I was crazy because I wanted to postpone my surgery until after 2 fitness conferences that I had planned to attend. My second fitness conference ended on Sunday 7/23. I flew home on 7/23 and my surgery was on 7/24. The surgery went well and I was able to go back to training my clients and teaching my fitness classes 2 weeks after surgery. During my fitness classes, I have made it a point to share my cancer journey and remind women to get their mammograms! I even caution men as they can get Breast Cancer as well. Be aware of your body.
I was very fortunate to avoid radiation and chemotherapy. The next decision to be made……go on a cancer drug (Arimidex) or not. I struggled with this for quite some time and originally opted out because of fear of the side effects and effectiveness of the drug. Later on, I decided to go on the drug after much discussion with my oncologist and other Breast Cancer survivors.
Things went so smoothly for me that I returned to my normal activities with very little discomfort and inconvenience. Life just seemed to move forward. One year later, things drastically changed for me. I found myself agitated, wanting to cry all the time, sad, scared and depressed . I tried to put on a good front but I was suffering internally. So much so that I was throwing up on a daily basis, disoriented and unfocused. I began counseling and through much time and discussion, I realized that I was suffering from a couple of things; “survivors guilt” and “fear of cancer returning” (it is like having a gun pointed at the back of your head and at any moment, “Cancer” could pull the trigger). Why did I survive and others didn’t? Why wasn’t my cancer as bad as other women’s experience? How did I make it through SO easily? When will the cancer return, not “if” it will return?
My passion has always been to help people through health and fitness. I decided to take my passion to the next level. Although I am not trained to help with the emotional aspect of dealing with any Cancer, I knew I could make an impact with the physical/fitness aspect of Breast Cancer and Cancer in general. This year I obtained my CES (Cancer Exercise Specialist) training. My goal is to help as many people as I can with their pre-surgery, during treatment and post-surgery health and fitness during their Cancer journey.
Thank you for listening to my story.
Stay Healthy!