My Story…..

First off I would like to say thank you so much for reading/following my new blog!!  The scariest part of starting this blog for me was wondering if I truly had anything to say.  Anything that would interest people enough to take time out of their busy week to read.  So thank you for the emails, the comments (IF ANY) and for the encouragement.

Here is my story (or some of it anyhow).  I am just going to cover what has led me to today.  What has led me to starting this blog, to want to re-discover life and want to learn to love everything and everyone in it.

I am 30 years old, live in Red Deer, Alberta and have 2 very important men in my life.  My husband Chad and my son Sawyer are my whole world.  My goal is to make them smile, each and every day.

A year ago I was a very tired first time mom, struggling yet enjoying my time with Sawyer.  Sawyer was such a good little baby but he sure hated to sleep.  He never wanted to miss a thing.  I was planning on going back to work but decided to extend my maternity leave so that I could spend the summer with my little man instead of inside my office.  Little did I know that my summer would not go as planned.

Fast forward a month and I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Triple Negative Breast Cancer that had moved from the breast into the lymph nodes.  I can’t describe the feelings that came next.  I am not sure I have really let myself go there since it all happened.  At this point, it is easier letting it be a blur.  I do know I will have to address this to completely heal from it, and I will, but all in due time.

I knew nothing about breast cancer.  In hopes of a complete pathological response doctors wanted to start aggressive TAC chemotherapy as soon as possible to try and kill the cancer before surgery to make the surgery less invasive. My first initial thought was no way.  Get this cancer out of me NOW.  In my mind it needed to be removed.  After a few different people looked at it, and I had a short amount of time to digest it with my family, the consensus was to do chemotherapy first.

I am not going to focus on the details of everything that happened over the last year.  Maybe I will post on it later if the topics come up or if people are interested in learning some of what I experienced.  For today I will summarize:

6 Rounds of TAC chemotherapy.  The doctors stopped at 6 as it felt like the cancer was shrinking and responding favourably.

Double Masectomy with immediate reconstruction.  The pathology came back as a surprise to us all.  The cancer was still everywhere and 13 out of 14 lymph nodes were infected also.  The chemotherapy was not successful.  And worst yet…..they were fairly confident there was still cancer left.

Second Surgery to get clear margins on the breast.

Travel to Mayo Clinic in Arizona for another opinion.   They completely agreed with the treatment here and said they would have recommended the same.  The only thing different was they were able to give me some additional information on a couple alternative treatments that may be gaining some…………

PET scan shows that there is still cancer in the lymph nodes under my arm and now also in my chest wall.

30 Rounds of radiation treatment.

12 Rounds of Hyperthermia treatments with IV Curcumin Therapy. *I have been seeing a Natropath that focuses in Oncology in Calgary, AB through this whole process also.

2 weeks of much deserved family time in Mexico…..

And here we are!  I am currently waiting for my next scan to see what the story is and if the radiation was successful.  Today I am just doing whatever I can to stay healthy, strong and happy.  I am learning to be me again, learning what this new life looks like and learning how to LOVE.

xoxo Lyndsey