I was only 16 years old when my journey began. One day my greatest concern was what I was going to wear to prom, do with my life after high school, etc. Then the next day....
Everything changed.
Cancer.
And not just any cancer...a very aggressive & very rare kind. Ready for the fancy word?
Synovial spindle-cell sarcoma. (Basically cancer of the connective tissue.)
Not exactly something you would sense coming from any direction. But it did. And with it came some extremely disturbing news.
At best, my parents were told I had 5 years to live. And if for some crazy reason I survived past that, I would have zero chances at having my own children. Just one drop of the nasty chemotherapy drugs would cause sterility.
That's a lot for anyone to swallow...let alone at 16.
But God is bigger than cancer. And He showed me from the very beginning that He had an extraordinary plan for my life that would bring Him SO much glory!
He was the reason I could keep trudging forward.
He is the reason, that eighteen years later, I am still alive and more vibrant than ever!
And He is the reason for my path to wellness.
But here I am again, getting ahead of myself :)
There are a TON of mini stories and details, within my whole journey, that I could share with you. And believe me, they would blow your socks off. But that will be for another time. I want to get to present day, so I will move forward.
I began a regime that consisted of several surgeries, aggressive chemotherapy, and intense radiation therapy. And then...we waited.
The doctors said that, if the cancer returned, it was most likely to hit the original site or pop up in my lungs. Apparently, that's a common place for this type of cancer to metastasize too.
So we waited...and waited....and waited.
3 years went by and....nothing.
You sense a "but", don't you? Well...you're right.
At the 3 1/2 yr point, the cancer reared it's ugly head in my lungs this time. So, more surgery & more chemo. And then we waited again. I got married and then 6 months into my marriage I had the SHOCK of my life.
I was pregnant!!! (The credit goes SOLELY to God on this whooper!!)
3 months after our precious baby girl was born, the cancer monster hit with a vengeance. Both lungs full of tumors.
More surgery. More chemo.
Then cancer....again. This time, we just opted for surgery alone. The chemo clearly wasn't doing anything except wrecking me, so we were advised to just take out the tumor and hope it was the last one.
Then, against ALL odds, I found myself expecting Baby #2!!! Our sweet baby boy was born 9 months later.
During that pregnancy however, we found the beast in my lungs yet again. (I must've had an incredibly hospitable environment that it just didn't want to leave lol!)
Again, we just chose the surgeries.
BUT....then a 7 year hiatus happened. No cancer...for 7 years! (And we had baby #3 during that time too!)
I really thought that chapter of my life was closing. And it felt good! (Do you sense it though....the "but"??)
But....then 2017. That year will be forever ingrained into my memory.
I began having some gut issues the prior year. And several years before that, I was experiencing major, life-disrupting, horrific perimenopausal symptoms....and I was only in my late 20s. I was told that menopause was creeping in because of all of the chemotherapy I had previously. Normally women have a handful of symptoms that come with menopause. I was lucky though....I had them all. (Insert sarcasm & eye roll.)
Migraines, MAJOR mood swings, hot flashes, food intolerances, a weird rash on my hands, & insomnia (just to name a few) became a regular part of my everyday life. I was exhausted, miserable, and some days desperately longing to see the face of Jesus.
Then, something happened that sparked the beginning of, what felt like, my complete undoing.
My gall bladder failed.
Ok....I know that doesn't sound monumental at all. In fact. that's extremely common. But, like I said before, this was just the kick-off.
Just a short 6 months after they removed my GB, we got the news that would stop me Dead. In. My. Tracks.
Cancer.....AGAIN.
And not the same "normal" cancer.
No...this was new. So new...the doctors had no idea what it really was. (Not the most comforting news, let me tell you.)
And this cancer brought extreme measures.
You see, this time, the beast was in the bone of my shoulder blade. And a week after I got that news, I also got the news that I had breast cancer too....on the same side as the shoulder blade.
After my doctors spent a lot of time debating, researching, and consulting with other doctors around the country, a plan of attack was set in place.
They did a lumpectomy to remove the breast cancer. A week later, they went in and removed my whole shoulder blade- rendering my shoulder useless. Then, 6 months later, they did a mastectomy and reconstruction.
That seems like enough, right? Ha! But all of those years of fighting the different wars had created a battle, looming in the background, that I wasn't even aware of.
We'll get to that next time ;) Stay tuned!