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How My Life Was Saved

My doctor of ten years closed her practice. I liked her as my doctor, but she had a very small office and if I needed any kind of test, she send me out about a half hour drive in heavy traffic. I didn't like that since I do very little driving, so I never got the necessary tests. Shortley I enrolled in Kaiser Permanente HMO. A few days after I enrolled, I was in the hospital for a bowel abstraction. While in the hospital the staff got me all caught up with test I hadn't had in ten years. And that's when they found the Brest Cancer. And that's how I feel my life was saved.

Anonymous
Elk Grove, CA

Our Hero!

Mom discovered a lump in her right breast and she kept an eye on it. She thought it was getting bigger so she went to the doctor. The doctor said it was a large mass. Her doctor sent her for a biopsy and that is when we got the devastating news. She was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer. She has a very fast growing and aggressive form of cancer.

Mom was diagnosed in December of 2013. She started her first treatment January 3rd. She took treatments once every three weeks. Her treatments lasted around 5 hours each time. Just after her second treatment her grandmother passed away at 91 years young. She has been mom's guardian angel through this entire process. She took her last treatment April 18th! What a great Good Friday that was!

Mom goes in for a lumpectomy on May 19th. She will then take radiation and continue on her Herceptin treatments for the next seven months. She will take a hormone pill every day for the next five to ten years.

We are so proud of her. She is our rock. Even in her sickest moments she had a smile on her face. Positive attitude and faith has played a huge roll for her. She has an entire support group behind her every step of the way. We love you to the moon and back! We are all apart of Terrie's Army!

Please go and get your mammograms yearly and do your self-checks! Doing a self-check saved my mom's life!

Karrie Matile
Princeton, KS

Smiling through the storm

I was giving myself a self examination and I felt a lump in my right breast. After a mammogram, an ultrasound and a needle biopsy I was diagnosed with Invasive Carcinoma. BREAST CANCER!!! How did this happen to me? What didi do to cause this? What did I do to deserve this? Am I going to die? What am I going to do? At first I was in complete shock, then I decided it was time for action!! I registered with the top 2 cancer hospitals in Boston. I decided to have a double mastectomy. Just get this cancer out of my body so I can concentrate on fighting. I was lucky that my job was understanding and told me to do whatever I needed to do and just focus on getting healthy. I thought this was going to be a quick and easy procedure. I didn't need Chemotherapy, it hadn't spread to my lymph nodes and because I was having the double mastectomy I didn't need radiation. My BRCA 1/11 gene testing came back Ok so I didn't have to have a hysterectomy. All good news. I had my double mastectomy on November 15th and it went well. Since then I had to have 2 additional surgeries due to complications with healing. Drs. blamed all healing issues on the fact I was a smoker. How do you not smoke when you have been given news like this? But I decided I wanted to be healthy and have a good outcome with my reconstructive surgeries so I quit smoking. Now I am waiting to have my tissue expander put back in on the right side. After that will be weekly fills then implants after that. I am fortunate to have great family and friends around me. I try to stay positive and maintain a happy state of mind. It was caught early and other than taking my Tamoxifen (for the next 5 years) my treatment has been pretty easy. I am really excited about going through the reconstructive phase. Out with the old in with the new.

Cindy Sawin
Natick, MA

Our Hero

Mom discovered a lump in her right breast and she kept an eye on it she thought it was getting bigger so she went to the doctor. The doctor said is was large. Her doctor sent her for a biopsy and that is when we go the devastating news. She was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer. She has a very fast growing and aggressive form of cancer.

Mom was diagnosed in December of 2013. She started her first treatment January 3rd. She took treatments once every three weeks. Her treatments lasted around 5 hours each treatment. Just after her second treatment her grandmother passed away at 91 years young. She has been mom's guardian angle through this entire process. She took her last treatment April 18th! What a great Good Friday that was!

Mom goes in for a lumpectomy on May 19th. She will then take radiation and continue on her herceptin treatments for the next seven months. She will take a hormone pill every day for the next five to ten years.

We are so proud of her. She is our rock. Even in her wickets moments she had a smile on her face. Positive attitude and faith has played a huge roll for her. She has an entire support group behind her every step of the way. We love you to the moon and back! We are all apart of Terrie's Army!

Please go and get your mammograms yearly and do your self checks! Doing a self check saved my mom's life!

Karrie Matile
Princeton, KS

Life-changing Peace

I’m a healthy, marathon-running, 35 yr-old mother of 3, no family history of breast cancer in the craziest journey of my life.

I remember the date I found the lumps – January 11. I was 17 weeks pregnant with our 4th baby, but had just come home from the doctor, devastated, where we learned that our little girl didn't survive. A friend warned me that my milk might come in. So, I was ultra aware and ready for it. I noticed some “clogged milk ducts" but after a few days of only feeling the lumps, I got nervous.

“That’s crazy – these things don’t form overnight!” is what we repeated for days.

I went in for my a follow-up exam and it alarmed the doc as well, so I went for a mammogram and ultrasound that day. The radiologist said she didn't know what it was, so she sent me for a biopsy. They took 10 small chunks of tissue from 3 tumors and left a titanium marker in each. I went home to wait.

I was sitting on my bathroom floor, feeling brave enough to put my maternity clothes away, when the doctor called. February 14th. Valentine’s Day. One month from a 17-week miscarriage. Breast cancer? How can that be? Bad things like this don’t happen to me!

And now, after being diagnosed with stage 3 invasive ductile carcinoma of the right breast ... I've already completed 3 chemo cycles. My hair is gone, a double mastectomy, radiation and more chemo are scheduled for this summer.

But amid the chaos and the scariest feelings, I have felt more peace than I thought possible. No, I don’t want to be on this journey. I’d gladly bury it in the ground and I’ve only just begun. But, more love has been in this home in the past 3 months than ever before. Between my family, friends, neighbors that have called, texted, watched my kids, sent cards and flowers, brought dinner … I have felt an army of angels that have been my side that are ready to fight this with me.

Brittany Atkinson
Milton, GA

Diagnosed on my 47th Birthday with Triple Negative Breast Cancer

On Sept 13, 2011 I had my mastectomies. I had my life port put in on Oct 18th. I began chemo on Oct 30-Feb 9,2012. I lost my hair within 2 weeks and had terrible anxiety. I lost my mom on Feb 27. Radiation March til June. June Scan revealed more cancer. Surgery Aug 8 was to be over night stay.. was 25 days. Began chemo Sept 13th-Feb 2013..did not lose my hair.. had no side effects.Scan in Oct 2012 revealed more cancer. Continued chemo. Scan Jan 2013 at CTCA in Chicago revealed more cancer. Started chemo for this March-May 2013.Lost my hair and had a lot of pain. May scan revealed no cancer. Yay, I got a break. Aug scan revealed more cancer. Started chemo Aug 15th- Dec 2013. Lost my best friend in August. Did not lose my hair..no side effects. Oct scan revealed 1 gone and 1 smaller. Yay!! Jan 2014 scan revealed cancer has grown..Started chemo Jan -today Apr9. Lost my hair and bad bone pain. I will scan on May 13th. I have a great support team of my family and friends. Without them I am not sure where I would be today. August will be my 3 yrs and they say that is it for me. I don't believe them. My Dr. doesn't tell me that/ They told me that in Chicago.. I fired them. I only went for a 2nd opinion an they agreed with my Dr on every thing but, life span.. I am having a great time spending time with my children and My husband. Just being slow paced is nice , also. I have always worked and been so busy. Now, I can do what I want to as long as my body agrees. I will beat this beast!!

Shirley J Jackson
Thomasville, GA

It's not the worst......

I knew the minute the ultrasound tech started looking under my arm. She was looking for enlarged lymph nodes. She said, "I'll have the radiologist talk to you about the results" I was certain. He said , "This is treatable, you'll be fine." Thanks, I think! One appointment led to another. I went to see the highly recommended surgeon. She said, "This is not going to kill you" Really? REALLY? That never crossed my mind. This was a 1.2 cm lump., with good pathology, not a death sentence. I chose the conservative approach, a lumpectomy. The post surgical pathology was favorable with no involved lymph nodes. Thank goodness!!

Chemo followed, four treatments, three weeks apart. The first one kicked me to the curb, I'm not gonna lie. The others were much more manageable. Gone was the fear of the unknown. You know what the worst part was? I lost my taste for chocolate!!! Chemo, I said "You can have my hair, but, you can't have my chocolate." (The taste came back, yay) Buying my wig was my favorite part! The sales person was pulling all of the salt and pepper styles, trying to match what I had. Ha, no way, I said, "Let me see that light brown one with highlights." This was my chance to reinvent myself, I was gonna be sassy! I even bought nine hats! What? They were on sale! And a new car!

Radiation followed, 35 treatments. At first, it was an inconvenience, but, then, it became a part of my daily routine. No real side effects to speak of there either. I'm one of the lucky ones and I know I've been lucky, I've been extremely lucky. And for all of you, my wish is similar good luck, good health and good fortune. We have the science to diagnose breast cancer and we have ways to fix it. Aren't we all lucky?

I'm finished now, it's over, it's what I had, it didn't have me. It did not define me, I am who I am, I HAD breast cancer, I don't have it any more!!!!

Anonymous
Baltimore, MD

Pregnant with Breast Cancer

When I was 7 months pregnant my OBGYN called me in to give me devastating news. He told me that the lump in my left breast came back positive with cancer. My first thought was for my unborn son's life & how will this affect the rest of my pregnancy. I met with a breast cancer doctor and a oncologist who with my OBGYN all decided to give me steroids to develop my son's lungs so they can induce me. He was born almost a month early. Healthy & beautiful. Right after he was born I started chemo to try shrink the tumor. Had a double bilateral mastectomy. For almost 2 years of my son's life I was going through chemo, in & out of hospital & had radiation. Was very hard to go through it while raising a newborn. My bf had to work nights & we had no family or friends to come & help us. What gave me my strength was looking at my beautiful baby boy 's face everyday. I fought & kicked Breast Cancer's butt so I could be alive to raise my son. That was almost 5 years ago.

Teresita
Flanders, NJ

Please do regular self exams. No one knows your body better than you.

Two days before Thanksgiving 2013, at age 65 I was diagnosed with Stage 2 Triple Negative Invasive Ductal Carsinoma after finding a lump in my right breast a couple of weeks before. Very scary since my mother died of breast cancer over 30 years ago.

My Doctors were right on top of everything and moved very quickly to get to the diagnosis. First a diagnostic mammogram and an ultrasound. The next week was the needle biopsy. This confirmed everything. I had never heard of Triple Negative and learned a lot. First of all it is an aggressive type and not fed by any of the three major human hormones.

Luckily I have a large support group, because my head is still swimming.

Since my lymphnoids were negative I chose a Lumpectomy with 4 sessions of chemo 21 days apart, to be followed by 6 weeks of radiation, every day monday - friday.

I had the lumpectomy 1/3/14, started my first chemo 2/26/14. My last chemo 4/30/14. On 5/3/14 I will be doing the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Walk and start radiation 2 weeks later.

Remember you are never to young or to old to do a regular self breast exam. It could save you life.

Charlotte Hopson
Las Vegas, NV

I got this!!

I was going for weight loss surgery and during the very beginning of the process I told my dr I need to have a mammogram I'm few months late. I went October 1 2013. I knew it wasn't good. I was diagnosed with stage 1A grade 2 ductal carcinoma. I had lumpectomy followed by 33 radiation treatments. Now on arimidex for next 5 years. Been through a lot. I got this !! I will be fine.
Marla S.
New Bern NC

Anonymous
New bern, NC