Nikki had zero history of cancer in the family, and with routine checks in the past, this lump was dismissed as nothing serious. Her heart beat swelled rapidly and her palms became sweaty. Images of the grim reaper flashed through her subconscious. Fear began to suffocate her thoughts and it was hard to swallow her own spit. Nikki felt as if the walls were caving in. I knew how long that lump had been there and hearing those words felt like a death sentence.
Nikki revealed the news to her loved ones and there were many tears and even more hugs. Her family showed her a mountain of support. A light shined through the dark cave of crippling news as she felt the warmth of love surround her. It became very difficult to take care of her two children. Becoming filled with poison was not what Nikki had in mind but she had the mindset to do whatever she had to do to stay alive and be there for her family.
Given the choice, she chose a double mastectomy. To this day, Nikki still takes Tamoxifen, which is a synthetic drug used to treat breast cancer and infertility in women that acts as an estrogen antagonist. The changes a woman with breast cancer undergoes are horrendous, and Nikki suffered them all. She survived weight loss, the loss of both of her breasts, scars, hot flashes, loss of all hair, sickness, insomnia, and depression.
It was a whirlwind of pain that attempted to take her out, but Nikki courageously held on. God strategically knit together a team of earth angels to weave together a blanket of support.
This blanket was her husband, family and friends. Her mother, in particular, was her rock who took a leave of absence from work to help her through to the road to recovery. A group of women from her Bible study would deliver meals every night to her family while she would undergo treatment. Her faith was the foundation that held everything together. My faith gave me so much strength when I needed it most. She accepted the medical fact that if it was to put up shop, it would do so within the first 3 years after treatment.
Luckily she embraced a few key points. Nikki grasped that her strength had grown more now than ever before. She can promise that even in her darkest days, there is still joy to be found. Nikki Stuart has been cancer free for ten years now. Her recipe for survival was filled with nights in her closet crying out, visions of a celebratory pink party, and mountain of faith.
Her advice to others is to stay as positive as you can. She encourages people who will face this same mountain or others like it to surround themselves with a great support system. I think both are ok and I would never beat myself up for having those raw moments. Sometimes that is where your greatest strength comes from.
Julie Castruita could not believe that her life had come to this. Not long ago, she had been playing with her kids and feeding them dinner. Two short knocks dissipate the image of her smiling children and bring her back to the dull white interior of the Urgent Care. She lets the doctor in. Castruita, but the tests came back positive. You have Triple Negative Breast Cancer. Julie felt like she had been sentenced to death.
It seemed like just yesterday that she got married and became a mother. It was only the beginning of the newest and happiest phase of her life, but this cancer was going to end it. She was afraid of chemotherapy too, especially losing her hair and the psychological trauma that comes with it. When word reached her loved ones, they were shocked, sad, and angry, perhaps uncertain or confused by the possibility that they might lose Julie.
Some, like her father, could never fully adapt to this reality, and sometimes became distant as she struggled through her treatment. I wanted the most aggressive treatment to remove the cancer, and also prevent any further occurrences. Her diet was revised to include more fruits and vegetables and less sugar. She began to exercise regularly. Her newfound strength became crucial as she began her treatment. She faced a host of terrible ailments, including hair loss, difficulty swallowing, fatigue, yeast infections, staph infections, severe dehydration, constipation, numbness in her hands and feet, and dry mouth.
Not surprisingly, the drastic shift in her lifestyle was difficult to cope with. I was very focused, like it was a job, to get through the treatments. Her mother volunteered to take her to appointments and treatments, allowing her husband to continue working. Her father-in-law and mother-in-law took care of her children while she had surgery and after treatment.
Her sister, father, and aunt would buy her food. Their help made a huge impact on Julie. She owed a lot to her family, but it was the thought of being there for her children that helped her fight and even overcome her pain. Julie took the time to offer advice and words of encouragement for those who are suffering from cancer. Also, question the doctors and ask why this is their course of treatment. Be informed. Nominate someone in your family, or a close friend, to be your advocate throughout the whole process.
Take control of your life rather than let cancer control you. Every woman should be familiar with their own body, and many engage in routine self-breast exams this day and age. For Kelly Aldecoa, this self-exam was a gunshot that began a marathon she never asked to run. On July 3, , she performed a self-exam while pregnant when she discovered a plum-sized mass under her left arm. Though this may have seemed alarming for most women, Kelly was pregnant and dismissed it as being a blocked milk duct.
The fear of death ran past her in this marathon, like the paralyzing sense of existential dread that some runners experience after a race, only this time, the race had just begun.
This was not how she envisioned her pregnancy would go. Her cancer developed from a tumor seven centimeters large to two more four-centimeter sized tumors in her lymph nodes. It can be found in your blood and urine. Everyone who loved Kelly was in complete shock and grief-stricken as no one imagines a year-old woman who was already 26 weeks pregnant should have to suffer breast cancer. The school PTA where she worked as a teacher even made dinners nightly and delivered them with love.
After accepting the idea of treatment, Kelly jumped hurdles as she had to contend with the time frame of beginning the actual process. She recalls this portion of the race filled with oncologists and obstetricians. After visiting the neonatal team at UCI, Kelly and her husband made the excruciating decision to deliver her son Ryan right away so she could begin chemo.
Ryan was born six weeks early on September 10, , just three months after that life-changing self-exam. Ryan was rushed to the NICU immediately to treat his respiratory issues. Left alone in the birthing room, thoughts of despair, guilt and sadness went through her mind like thousands of dust particles in a windstorm.
I was angry at cancer for taking a moment that should have been magical. On September 12, she was forced to walk away from her newborn, leaving him in the hands of the NICU, to begin chemo. She remembers after the epidural and delivery, her heartbreaking visit to the NICU.
I chose to deliver Ryan six weeks early. She lost her hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes. She was plagued with nausea and insomnia. Her mother rushed to the mall to fill her closets with them. The love and support from her family were like a basket of love during her treatment, and staying busy with three small children kept her occupied.
At the time, her children were five, two, and Ryan had just been born. She acknowledged the fact that her children did not fully understand the magnitude of the situation. I fear nothing! She and her loved ones felt blessed. Knowing that both she and Ryan would be fine was the greatest feeling, and this marathon would encourage her to appreciate what she had.
She embraces the notion that life is too short, that people should remain positive, and to live each day to its fullest. As she reminisced on the one thing that kept her going, she was filled with empathy. She will never forget hearing in the news about the Cobel family tragedy. They lost all three of their children on that tragic day. Nothing that I went through would be worse than what that beautiful family went through that day. Even through almost losing her son and her own life, she was able to feel deeply for a family she never knew.
She embraced the notion that life is precious and some will deal with it worse than others. She made it through decisions that took faith to make, like delivering a child at 26 weeks, and in doing so, God blessed her with favor.
This bad country song playing through her marathon ended with a sweet symphony of triumphant horns as she made it to the finish line.
Fear is a thing of the past, and her test has now blossomed into a testimony. Amelia Riggs is married to a loving husband and has two sons. Imagine her surprise, then, when she discovered a lump in her breast while she was in the shower. Amelia dropped everything that day to see the doctor, who diagnosed her with breast cancer. She was terrified of the diagnosis — so scared that she began to research all the outcomes of her treatment before she realized it was only making things worse.
Each of us are different and the treatment for each of us is different. What worked for them may not be good for you. Amelia was lucky to have an incredible support group to make things easier. Her large extended family and her friends who had survived breast cancer were also very encouraging.
The only choice you have to make is whether or not you will use it. My old vintage designs are so popular now. I must have been on to something. This will involve audacity, clarity and plain speaking; trying to straighten my accounts with the world. I don't believe in being serious about anything. I think life is too serious to be taken seriously. Work Hard, Enjoy what you do and be good to other human beings, we all equal, Being a good persons whats make you special.
Really, for all the poetry in the world on the subject, when you get right down to it, it's mostly just boom! What I mean is, for the most part, other people aren't out to get us. Neither one of them hesitated to translate feeling into action, when an opportunity arose.
0コメント