Thursday, April 16, 2015

The Worst Deja’Vu’

There is one sentence you never wanna hear a family member or loved one say, “I have cancer”. It’s a reality we are all faced with, that someone in our life will discover they have cancer. In the midst of this discovery several sobering questions will arise….. 

What stage is it?....Did they catch it early?...... Was it contained?.......What’s the course of treatment? and my least favorite question “What’s the survival rate…”.

The feeling of deja’vu’ came over me a few months ago when during a checkup and Lincoln doctor I got a random phone call from my mother. Instantly I could hear in her voice that she was trying to sound optimistic, but that something was wrong.  

To give you a little history, it’s only been 2 years since I got a very similar phone call from my father. To tell me that in less than 24 hours he was having a massive tumor removed, in a surgery I later learned was called the whipple, to battle his very aggressive pancreatic cancer.  A procedure that only 20% are eligible for, and is extremely risky. Luckily for all of us, he survived and did beautifully. And now, with the help of his oncologist and doctors and by God's grace, his tests keep coming back clean. 

Being aware of how quickly cancer can spread, my mother has been proactive in her own screenings. Earlier this year during a routing mammogram her doctor discovered a small mass, and had it biopsied. This was not her first biopsy, but the first one that came back malignant (cancerous).  

She wasted no time scheduling a surgery, to remove the mass and test her lymph nodes.  Which leads up to the phone call I received the afternoon of February 5th. My mom was calling to let me know she in fact had cancer, but that they caught it early. 

I am happy to report, after her recovery and meeting with her oncologist, my mom is cancer free. The mass was so small in-fact, the majority was taken by the biopsy. So they are only recommending 5 weeks of radiation.  I share this, because it’s not uncommon for caregivers, and family members to take a backseat to their own personal health when caring for a loved one. If my mom had done this, while helping my dad through recovery, there is no way we would have caught it this early.

Additionally, most people arnt aware that if you have a family history of cancer, insurance will cover additionally screenings. My mom is the 4th woman in my family to have been diagnosed with breast cancer. So, not only will I be electing to have yearly monograms moving forward, but we are looking into genetic testing.

I share this, because life can get so busy that we forget to take care of ourselves. Well, life is short....so please, take care of yourself, get check ups, screenings so you can spend more time enjoying what little precious time we have left.

Xoxo-



 

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