Cancer Slayer

2017 started out busy for me. My school had suddenly closed. I was working two full-time jobs. I decided to take on more hours when my school closed. So, I was working like crazy. One evening, I happened to brush my arm along the top of my chest. I felt a painful lump. I immediately ran to my husband and asked him to feel it. He felt the lump too. I told myself it was nothing, and that if the pain stayed, I would go and get it checked out.

The pain never went away. I decided to call my OBGYN. To my surprise, they had an opening a few days later. When I went in, the nurse practitioner told me it was nothing because it was painful. I remember her telling me that cancer doesn’t hurt, but that she was going to send me for a mammogram just to be safe.

I went in for the mammogram and an ultrasound, she said they would most likely do an ultrasound because when your young you often have dense breast and they can’t tell what is what. I didn’t think of anything when I was told I needed an ultrasound right after I had the mammogram. But after I had the ultrasound, they let me know that I needed to come in for a biopsy-guided ultrasound. I was worried, but I wasn’t too concerned because remember I was told cancer didn’t hurt.

This whole time, I decided to take off work. My lump hurt all the time. When I would go to work, the lump would hurt even worse. There was no sense in going to work and making myself be in more pain. I went in on a Monday for the biopsy-guided ultrasound. I was scared because I had never had a needle stuck in my breast! I had it done. It hurt so bad. I knew it was something when I had it done because I saw the tumor on the ultrasound screen. Just the energy in that room felt weird. I now know why.

Thursday, April 13th, 2017. I kept on calling the doctors for my results, but they kept telling me that they didn’t have them. I was going insane. So, I decided to go and do my lighter-weight job. I worked at different retail stores. I walked into one of my stores, and my phone rang. It was the doctor’s office. They asked me what I was

doing. I thought that was weird. I told her that I was working. She asked me if I could come to the office with family. I told her I could. I would be right there.

I remember walking out of the store, crying. I didn’t finish my job. I just left. I went into my car and just sobbed. I cried my eyes out. Called my husband, mom, and mother-in-law. They all asked if I wanted them to come to where I was so I didn’t have to be alone, but I wanted to be alone. I got to the doctor’s office and everyone was waiting. They closed the doctor’s office, but opened it up for me. I knew it was cancer. The same doctor who delivered my son, gave me the worse news in the world. I cried. He cried! I didn’t know any details. All I knew was that I had breast cancer.

It took me a bit to get into a treatment center. I got into one of the best cancer treatment centers in southern California, The City of Hope. I went to my first appointment. The doctor was so kind. She drew out pictures for me instead of bombarding me with information. I found out that I had stage 1C, triple negative breast cancer. I knew that I had to start chemo as soon as possible.

It took a few weeks, due to insurance, but I finally started chemo. Right before I started chemo, I had a MRI. I found out that my cancer had grown, that is how aggressive triple negative is. So, I was now, a stage 2A! Chemo wasn’t as hard as everyone else had made it out to be. I did 4 dose dense of AC, or the red devil. Then, I was supposed to do 4 dose dense of just Taxol. I tested positive for the BRCA1 gene. So, they needed to change my chemo. They needed to add Carboplatin.

I started on the dose dense of the Taxol and Carboplatin, but it was too much on my body and my counts kept on dropping. So, I changed to weekly. I ended up doing 14 chemo’s total. After I was finished with chemo, I had my bilateral myectomy with immediate reconstruction. I was told that there is no evidence of disease in November of 2017. Since I had a complete response to chemo, I was told I no longer needed to have radiation.

Life as a cancer survivor is hard. Especially when you are young and you are told that you are a survivor. People think that you are cured, why aren’t you doing the things that you did before. What do you mean, you have chemo brain? How can you still have that? Dealing with life after cancer, is way harder for me than being a patient. When I was going through treatments, it was just like a job. Like what I had to do to survive. Now, I am just thrown back into this world with a body that isn’t what it was before.

I wish that there were ways to educate people about life after cancer. They do not think about the fact that you had poison so powerful it killed the cancer. Well, what do you think it did to the other organs in my body? Just because my hair is growing back, doesn’t mean I feel okay. If someone is reading this and they are recently diagnosed, just know that you can survive this. The number one thing to do, is to stay positive. No, that doesn’t mean you can’t cry. You can, but just don’t allow yourself to stay in that negative spot. Laugh as much as you can.

You can connect with me through Instagram @jennifera7x_cancerslayer

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