'Knowing what I know now, I wish I would have questioned my doctor more.'
feel like something wasn’t quite right with my body. My first symptom, a dull pain in my left breast, felt like a muscle ache. But I had never felt pain like this before in that area, so I, just to be safe. She didn’t seem to take my discomfort as seriously as I did and told me I probably just pulled a muscle from holding my daughter, London, who was 2 years old at the time. She also didn’t order a mammogram to further investigate what was going on, and I just kind of accepted that answer.
Once I finally got my diagnosis, I immediately started chemotherapy. I did six intensive rounds and a total of 17 antibody treatments. Not only did I feel like I had the flu every day, but I was in isolation because of the pandemic. My husband had to solo parent our daughter while I was at the hospital. I endured these grueling treatments for four months, losing all of my hair, eyebrows and eyelashes included, in the process.
Then, a couple months after that, I started radiation therapy. Since I had stage III cancer and it had spread to my lymph nodes, radiation was a way to make sure there were no lingering microscopic cancer cells. Just trying to survive was like a part-time job. For five weeks, I got up at 7 a.m., Monday through Friday, to go to my treatments. These appointments often lasted hours. Afterward, I would come home and just rest.