My Breast Cancer Journey Ft. Megan Kielty
- Angela Inspires
- Oct 28, 2024
- 8 min read
Hello fellow warriors! My name is Megan and currently I live in ND. Yes, ND lol. I’m originally from Florida and moved here after my aunt Kathy set me up on a date with her boyfriend’s nephew in 2013. Now this was a real blind date. The kind where you do not know what each other looked like or really anything about him. I remember hoping it was this good looking guy that came to the bar. Well it happened to be him! We were instantly in awe of each other and inseparable from that day on. Now this was a long distance relationship and he had a 5 year old son from a previous bad marriage. I did not meet his son right away which made me love him even more because I knew he was a great Dad. Once I met his son, we were buddies from the start. And now he is 16, I consider him my son too. We married in the Fl keys which is one of our favorite places in 2015. In 2017, we welcomed our own son! He is 7 and so very sweet. I thought my fairy tale was complete.
In the end of 2019, I had a breast lift. I wanted my same size which was a full C or small D. So, the surgeon put in small 120cc implants since they take out tissue. I did not have a large history of breast cancer. My grandma got stage 1 or 2 when he was 85 so I opted out of a MRI bc, I was 35. In mid 2020, my left breast became hard and my excisions started to open up. I was concerned but this was during covid and the media scared me like I could get COVID from a doctor's office. By the time 2 friends convinced me to go to a friend that was a plastic surgeon. I met him and after seeing him he wanted to get the implant out right away. He ordered an MRI the night before surgery. The next day I was ready to get this painful thing out! As I was about to be put under, the surgeon came running in and said we could not do surgery. He then told my husband and I, that he thought I have Inflammatory breast cancer! He then said he set up biopsies right away to make sure. I was in disbelief and on the other hand, I was scared out of my mind. As, the radiologist did the biopsies, I asked her if it really looked like cancer because I have had benign spots when I was younger. She looked at me and held my hand and said yes. I still couldn’t fathom that it could be true. I do remember when I was young like a teen, that every time I saw a cancer patient or watched a movie and a cancer patient dies that I had this overwhelming feeling of great sympathy, sadness, and I would cry. Now I am a big believer in God. About 6 months prior to my diagnosis I prayed kind of a selfish prayer. I asked God, if anyone in my large family and especially my husband and sons, had to get anything bad like an illness or disease, to please let me bear it. I would rather go through this horrible thing than watch anyone in my family go through it. I am no hero, this devastated my family. I found out June 3rd, 2020 that I had stage 4 Inflammatory Her2+ ER- breast cancer that had fractured my sternum/ manubrium and a side of pneumonia. I was in disbelief. I did genetic testing and I am negative for the BRCA gene. As I googled this, which I don’t recommend, it’s basically a death sentence.
I did the smart thing. I got a second opinion from one of top hospitals in the world. Mayo.
My husband and I traveled to Mayo in Rochester, Mn. As, we waited in the room for about 30 minutes, 5 doctors came into the room. I thought wow, maybe this is a good thing. This Irish doctor then told us that they wouldn’t recommend treatment or surgery because of a clinic study done in India. She stated, that she didn’t want to put me through all this because She didn’t want me to die in so much pain. My husband and I started crying in disbelief and I told her that I can’t die, because I’m a mom. I also had lesions on my liver so Mayo did biopsies but it came back that I have hemochromatosis. Which means that I produce too much iron. Back in the day. People would die of organ failure. So the treatment is that I have to dump blood to lower my iron level.
As I went home and saw my oncologist with the news, tears rolled down my cheeks with no hope. He held my hand and said ,“we are not going to believe what they said and we will get through this." I started chemo I had 4 red devil/ Adriamycin treatments. You can only have 6 in your lifetime. I remember it was so toxic that you would pee red and have to flush 2 times. Then I did 12 taxol chemo and a year of perjeta and herceptin. So 16 rounds of pretty powerful chemo. Losing my long brown hair for the first time was horrific. Ive had long hair since I was a little girl. It was like losing my identity along with a breast.
They waited a couple months and I had my left mastectomy. This wasn’t a normal mastectomy because the cancer was in my skin as well. On my left side, there is basically skin and my rib cage. After healing from surgery, I had 33 rounds of radiation. I then developed neuropathy in my hands and feet from taxol. I waited maybe 6 months and got my chemo port removed. I finally felt like I beat this cancer that was supposed to kill me. I felt confident that my body was strong even to take all these hits. 18 months later from my first diagnosis, I found a small lump in my right breast that scans did not pick up. It was February 2022 when I was told that I had recurring cancer in my right breast. I never understood why the surgeon did not listen to my request to have the right breast removed also because I was high risk. This older surgeon told me that cancer cannot jump. Kind of like I didn’t know anything about cancer or my body. I saw that doctor again to get the right breast removed and said, “well I guess it jumped”!
For my secondary breast cancer, I had 8 rounds of Carboplatin & Docetaxol for chemotherapy, Herceptin which I am still on which is every 3 weeks, and a right breast mastectomy. I did get a new port on my left side. After losing your hair for the second time, I thought wow I will most likely never have long hair again. My image of myself was horrible because I gained 30lbs this time around and did not lose 20 lbs the last time around. My weight has fluctuated so much since 2020 because of my treatments.
April 2022 my husband was awarded a free trip to Mexico with his new job. We were excited to get away just us two. The second day there, my port area became very red and warm to the touch. I knew being a nurse that this was an infection. We saw the resort doctor who told us to go to the hospital right away for surgery. I wasn’t going to have a scary surgery in Mexico, so we flew home the next day. Now. The pain was so intense that it stung and burned horribly and clothes made it worse. These shooting pains made me cry. Now, we had 2 flights and go through and customs. Thankfully, we told the airline what happened so I had a wheelchair. We made it back and I took an ambulance to the hospital. I had this bad staph infection and was hospitalized for over a week with 2 surgeries, a wound vac, and wound care. The wound care was horribly painful, scraping my flesh out of this permanent hole in my left chest right under my collar bone. I wore the wound vac for 6 weeks but could not handle it anymore. Then, they placed another port in my right side. 3 ports within 2 years. I don’t recommend it lol.
Now, my oncologist wanted me on an infusion chemo drug called Kadcyla for a year. After the first infusion, I felt so weak that I physically could not get out of bed. The weakest I have ever felt. I knew something was wrong and told my husband that I needed to go to the ER. My platelet count was at a 10. Which is dangerously low. I was hospitalized and was given blood and platelet transfusions. 3 weeks later, my oncologist wanted to try the treatment again but 30% less. This time as I walked in the kitchen a couple days later, I fainted. I hit my arm, shoulder, and head on our quartz island. As I woke up, I crawled to the garage where my husband was and he took me to the ER. My platelets dropped to a 10 again and I was hospitalized for 5 days.
The summer of 2023, I fainted again and fractured my right foot twice and severed the main tendon. This time they did not know why I fainted. We waited to go to the ER the next day.
The night before Easter in 2024, I fainted again. I didn’t want to ruin Easter so I didn’t go in. I started having a headache which became a migraine and was unmanageable. I began vomiting and could not keep anything down so I went to the ER. They did a CT then a MRI which found a cancerous lesion. It was 2 days before my birthday and I was by myself when I found out because my husband had to pick up our son from a birthday party and then my neighbors watched him. I never allowed my son visit when I was hospitalized. I didn’t want him to have that worry or stress. He does not know, even to this day that I have cancer that spread to my brain. So I completed 35 min of continuous radiation. 4 months later it has shrunk. I am so grateful and scared at the same time because the herceptin does not protect my brain.
Life today as a survivor feels different after 3 cancers in 4 years. I have a lot of faith in God. He gave me 2 miracles and I know in a couple more months, I’ll have my third! You will have good days where you’ll want to do a lot and then there’s still those bad days when if you can rest, do it. I have learned who my true friends are. I have put up necessary boundaries with others who say hurtful things. I will never change who I am. Which is a empath, someone who loves to make others laugh, a wife to the most amazing man ever, a mother who loves her boys dearly, a great friend, a loving daughter, and someone who just likes making others
happy.
Breast cancer has taught me that I’m not invincible, but I am a lot stronger than I ever thought possible! My advice to my fellow warriors: Never give up! Be a strong advocate for yourself. You know your body better than any doctor. Counseling is a must. It will be hard to navigate life now then before. Say yes to the things you want to do and no to things you don’t. The truth is, we will all die one day, so let’s make this life worth living by doing amazing things that can help others. I love reaching out to younger women who are just starting this terrifying journey and giving encouragement.
To wrap my long story up, all I want to say is “with God anything is possible”!
To follow my journey: please follow me on my instagram page: f_breast_cancer_
Comentarios