2008 Blogger Boobie-Thon - We share because we care! Bloggers supporting breast cancer awareness by baring their boobies to raise money for breast cancer research!

Am I a Cancer Survivor? Yes, I Am.

Am I a Cancer survivor? Yes. I Am.

Diagnosed with stage 2 invasive lobular breast cancer at the age of 30.  I still, to this day, sit in my oncologist office, waiting to be seen. I often talk amongst other patients, listening to their struggles. Thinking of how I felt to sit in the same chair. The chemo chair. Thinking of how it felt to have the needle forced into the port on my chest.  Thinking if how it felt for Beth, my chemo nurse (angel), to push the Adriamycin into my young frail body. To sit and keep my spirits up, knowing I would be in bed, detached from the world, for at least another five days. To be useless to my children, and myself.

To think back on how I felt.. All the journals, and blogs…all about me. So self-absorbed.. but at the time, that is how I felt, and damn it…I was entitled. From now on though, I realize that this is more than survivorship. It is about engagement, activism, involvement, and advocacy. I will fight until no more lives are lost. Until no more “Mommies” have to worry about seeing their daughters grow up. Until no more “Mommies” have to watch their daughters fight for their lives, as my “Mommy” did, and until no more daughters have to watch their “Mommies” suffer the way my daughter did.

To have had some time to put this all into perspective has given me a new outlook. Now, when I converse with a newly diagnosed survivor, I feel distinctly separate from them. I see them sitting, waiting for their first chemo treatment, not knowing what to expect. Hair still intact, no clue as to what is about to happen.  I do not pity them, but I can reassure them. I can relate, but yet I feel no comfort in the fact that I am no longer one of them. I can give my own personal advice, and only hope that they will listen. I have, so far, won my battle, and feel like I was left here for a reason. If I can help just one woman in her fight, I have served my purpose.

My ultimate mission, and goal, is…By the time my daughter would have to be worried about this horrific disease…It will be non-existant. It will be something of the past. I can only hope, that you, my friends, will join me in this fight. PLEASE, spread the awareness, do not be afraid to tell your best friend, your sister, or your mom, to check their boobies. Cancer does NOT discriminate!!! I was diagnosed with Stage 2 Invasive Lobular Breast Cancer at age 30 , and my baby sister at age 27, with Hodgkins Lymphoma. We are both SURVIVORS.

You may need to be your own advocate. I was told “you are young, it is probably nothing, follow up in 6 months.” That was bull. YOU know your body. YOU will know if something is not right!! Do not be afraid to go with your gut. I had to fight for EVERY test I had, and I thank God every day that I did!!!

PLEASE help me in the fight against Breast Cancer! Together we can make a difference. Let’s make this something we tell our great grand children about! Something that will make them ask…What was that?...And hopefully we can answer… Nothing that you will ever have to worry about!!!  Thanks for reading!!!!xoxo  

~Jessica

Tie a Knot and HANG ON!

When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.  ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

The HOPE of being a SURVIVOR wasn’t an option given to me when I
found out I had Stage IV Breast Cancer! I was told Lauren , you have
Terminal Cancer .The average life span is 1-5 years with stage IV Breast
Cancer . I was mis-diagnosed when I first found my lump. By the time I
finally was diagnosed, I had breast cancer in most of my bones at the age of
37. I have bone metastasis to my spine, collarbones, hips, neck, sternum,
ribs , pelvis and skull. My doctor believed my “lump ” was a cyst and
insisted I was TOO YOUNG for Breast Cancer. I had 2 mammograms and 1 ultra
sound , they both came back clear. My last Mammogram came back suspicious.
Knowing how bad I felt , I insisted on a BIOPSY.They found a 6 cm sized
tumor and I woke up to the words “its cancer” ! One would ask how can this
be ?Why didnt the mammogram pick up the tumor ? I have what doctors call
“DENSE “Breast Tissue..That means it’s hard to see Cancer through the
“thick” tissue. Breast MRI’s are now being used more often and will
eventually prevent this mis-diagnosis in women. Most insurance companines
are not covering Breast MRI’s for screening purposes . Hopefully this will
change soon !!!!!!

I wouldn’t accept that I couldn’t survive. I sought out several opinions
and chose to be placed in a Research study and HOPED for the best . The
Avastin chemotherapy trial is now approved for Stage IV Breast Cancer. I was
the first arm at my Cancer Center for the Avastin / Taxotere study that is
now shrinking many breast tumors in women . I still don’t have any
activity in my breast where my 6 cm tumor was. I went through 15 months of
chemotherapy. I lost my hair, my fingernails & toe nails. I had mouth sores,
and a lot of pain , it was all worth it. I have been on 6 different types of
chemotherapy in the last 2 1/2 years. I am proud to be one of the women
paving the way for other SURVIVORS life spans to be pro-longed and possibly
cured ! I will continue to be in studies as long as my body allows me. I am
currently on Oral Chemotherapy at the moment . Some old disease has recently
decided to “wake” up again. I plan on putting cancer in a coma !!!

As I write this , its been 3 years since I found my breast mass! I have
SURVIVED past that 1 year time line that was given to me. I have HOPE
everyday. I live my life to the fullest on feel good days. I continue
treatments when I have flare ups . I’ll do whatever it takes to SURVIVE
Breast Cancer, I want to live to see my children grown. I want to be a
grandmother. I love my family and children. I fight everyday to continue
living life with my husband , children and family ! I have always been a
lover of life and I treasure every day I breathe ! I am a DAUGHTER of 40
years, a WIFE of 18 years and MOTHER of 17 years. These are my YEARS and I
plan on living many more . I am a SURVIVOR living with Stage IV Breast
Cancer. I HOPE to see a CURE in my Lifetime. I will hang on to that HOPE
until I breathe my last breath .

My Message to Women is this! I urge everyone to do Breast Self Exams
monthly starting at the age of 16. Breast Cancer has no AGE limit. If you
find a lump visit your Doctor . Never forget your yearly Mammogram. If you
are told the lump is a cyst have a biopsy or drain it immediately Don’t
wait and never give up searching for answers.

When you come to the end of your rope , tie a knot and HANG ON !

Lauren Groover

Life is too Important

Life is too Important to be Taken Seriously!  Oscar Wilde

We now interrupt this fairy tale with a very important announcement. 

I have always lived a charmed life.  Not without strife, but with an amazing resolve, a God-given ability to forget the negative, and a conviction that the universe is unfolding as it should.

What did I have to make me question that?  At 31 years old, I had been married 6 years to the world’s best husband, had a successful career, I was bright and healthy despite a few health “bumps in the road”... 

One warm summer night, in the throes of passion… or the beginning of passion I should say, my husband’s hands landed squarely on my breasts and he calmly and gently said “what’s this lump?”.  Passion ended…

Now, I was healthy, had no risk factors, no family history and no reason to think that this “lump” was breast cancer, right?  But that did not stop the screaming in my head, that feeling in my “gut”.  After spending the night reassuring each other that it was perfectly routine, I went to my family doctor (also a 31 year old woman) the very next day.

I went into her office and announced with confident naivety… “I have a lump and I need a prescription for a mammogram.  I want to have this looked at today.”  After the longest conversation I had ever had with her, she finally stopped trying to convince me, even after she felt this lump, to wait three to six menstrual cycles and track any changes and wrote my script.  Perhaps it was my threat to not leave her office or let her see any other patients until she did so?  Whatever the case, I left triumphant, being a woman who is used to be able to forge my own path, create my own destiny, yadda, yadda… and I went home and started to make calls to schedule my mammogram for that day.

So, if you’ve ever tried to schedule a mammogram… layer on top of that being a 31 year old woman with no personal or family history and being told repeatedly 8 out of 10 lumps are not cancer.  I finally begged a woman for an emergency appointment the following week.

My mom came with me.  After all, I had accompanied her on many a mammogram.  The condescending mammo tech asked “Why are you here honey.  You are too young to start down this road?”  I took her hand and placed it on my robe clad cleavage as we walked down the hall, oblivious to how long this road was going to be and where it would take me.

After the seventh time of being pulled in for retakes of my offending breast, I thought I would pass out.  Then off to the ultrasound room, where a radiologist (medical doctor) and technician both assured my mother and me that what they were seeing was a fluid filled cyst.  Nothing to worry about.  IF it would made me feel better, I could have it drained, but not necessary.  I knew right away that my next stop would be a surgical oncologist, so I went to get my records, only to be told by the clerk that I was going to be selfishly wasting the surgeon’s time that he could be spending with people who had cancer.  Boy, do I wish she was right.

Because of the radiology report, it took me several weeks to see the surgeon and my tumor had nearly doubled in size.  He wanted to do surgery that week.  I pushed it back due to a conflict with my boss’s vacation schedule (ahhh, to be able to make that decision over). 

One year, three surgeries, 6 chemo treatments, 37 radiation treatments later, my breast cancer experience was over, or so I thought.  My husband and I sold our house, quit our jobs, and moved 1,000 miles away from friends, family and cancer to live our dream in sunny Florida.

It’s been four years since that move, and I write this with no evidence of disease and with the overwhelming knowledge that you never leave cancer behind.  With each decision you make, test you take, headache you feel, friend you lose, friend you make, sunrise and sunset, cancer is with you forever.

Advocate for you.  Advocate for research and never take someone else’s word on your health.

***  Jennifer   ***

Strength, Courage and Confidence

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.  ~Eleanor Roosevelt

I am a breast cancer survivor. I had a bilateral mastectomy last year followed my reconstruction. I am now cancer free. A mammogram saved my life.  Recently Reconstructed, Now Cancer Free Boobies.

My Name is Evening, and I am a blogger!

Spirit

The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it.  ~C.C. Scott

Thank you for this opportunity to show the faces of survivors and to encourage others to hang on to hope and fight back…..HARD.

Mimi Nieves