The Fight Continues - This is What Breast Cancer Looks Like

Breast Cancer – it’s an angry beast. It sneaks in, out of nowhere, in between one annual appointment and another and it plots. Sometimes it’s just a spot. Sometimes it's spread like branches on a tree. And sometimes, it’s exceeded the space allowed for the breast only, and is already invading lymph nodes, and lungs.

I don’t know about the rest of you ladies, but once I’ve had my annual mammogram, and it comes back clear, I don’t think about it again for another 365 days; at least I didn’t used to think about it again.  

Six years ago changed all of that for me; how I thought, how often I thought, and how much I would worry. One by one it seemed, I had female friends receiving that “you’re your worst nightmare” call. Within a four-year span, six of my closest friends would receive that call and their lives would change forever.

Every single one of them had been diligent about their annual breast exams, and all of them had gotten clean/clear results the year prior. So, to say my outlook on what a clear visit would really mean, would drastically change – is putting it mildly. Actually, one of them would test clear and within 6 months of a fluke recheck – she would find out she was positive.

Talk about unnerving for the rest of us gals. I personally felt like the check was only good for the day you had it, as anything could happen and you would never see it coming.

All of my friends rode their journey’s out. Some had to have their breasts removed and some just chemo and radiation. And please know, I don’t say “just” as loosely as it sounds, but it does seem less radical than the total removal of very personal body parts.

But I still have one very special friend who was diagnosed with Inflammatory Breast Cancer or IBC who is still fighting for her life. She is in remission but she has not, and may never reach the “all clear – you’re cured now” status. She was officially diagnosed in 2014 and she is still struggling. Still taking oral chemo treatments – only the radiation has stopped. She has 3-5 PET scans annually to ensure it’s not spreading into other parts of her body.

She knows this is her life – and yet still – she works every single day. And I mean manual labor work too – not sitting behind a desk in the air conditioning. She is a store-re-modeler/re-setter and she works harder than many men that I know. She lives out of a hotel 3 weeks out of 4 each month – and she is married to one of the best men alive.

She’s a fighter through and through, and anytime I’m having what I think is a crappy day – my head hurts or my knee is giving me problems; all I have to do is think of her and life is right back into perspective.

Get your annual exams. Be vigilant about paying attention to your body, you know it better than anyone else ever will. And love yourself the most – you have to still be alive – to be here for everyone else.