With it being Breast Cancer Awareness in October, I wanted to share my own experience about this.
My mom was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 1998, rediagnosed in July of 1999 and then the cancer had spread to her lower back in November of 2007. Since 2007 she hasn't had another occurrence and currently is cancer free, but there is always a chance that it could come back, we just play the waiting game, but we don't let it stop us from living life.
I remember the day when I found out my mom had cancer the first time. I was 9 years old that summer, laying on the living room floor watching tv, my mom was in the recliner and my dad was on the couch. My mom was talking to someone and told that person that she had gotten the results back from the doctor and she had cancer.
I wasn't suppose to be listening to my mom's conversation, but its hard when she was right there. I remember I started to cry and my dad asked what was wrong. I had told him nothing, but he's my dad and knows that wasn't the correct answer he asked me again and I said mom has cancer, I didn't really know what it was but I knew it was bad. Dad had asked if I knew what it meant, of course I didn't but I answered yes, but you know what was next, my dad had questioned me what it was, but I had to say no and we had a family discussion about it.
I didn't know what was in store for my mom and my parents did a good job of keeping me sheltered from it. I remember going into the 4th grade in 1999 and my mom didn't have any hair and I was embarrassed for her to go to meet the teacher with me that year. It wasn't because she didn't have any hair but it was because I was afraid my classmates would make fun of her.
Over the next 2 or 3 years, my mom was in and out of hospitals doing treatments of chemotherapy and radiation. I don't really remember those nights of throwing up or not being able to get out of bed. My parents did a good job of hiding that part. I never really thought my mom was sick, because she always did her "motherly" duty and always did whatever I wanted, because she wanted to be apart of my life in case she had not won the battle against cancer.
Looking back over the last 12 years, my mom would have missed so much had she not fought the fight against breast cancer. She's had crappy doctors, for example the last one from November 2007 that helped her through treatments, he told her she was going to die, and look 4 years later, my mom is still alive. But she has had some doctors that told her she would beat it and just needed to stay positive.
Those who have friends or family members with any kind of cancer, keep them positive and don't think negative. There are miracles and they do come true.
"Breast cancer is not just a disease that strikes at
women. It strikes at the very heart of who we are as women: how others
perceive us, how we perceive ourselves, how we live, work and raise our
families-or whether we do these things at all.
" Debbie Wasserman Schultz
