Cancer Free!

When you get a diagnosis of "you have cancer" - it rocks your world.  I remember being in my late 20's when my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, or even as a teen when my grandma was diagnosed with ovarian cancer being rocked to the core. But nothing compares to being 39, with 3 young kids and being told you have cancer.  It is unbelievably hard.  It is not what I expected to hear, even after having gone through a biopsy where I felt the doctor was all but telling me it was going to be cancer.

It's a hard diagnosis to hear, and I chose to face cancer head on, as aggressively as needed and possible and I never lost hope and faith that I would beat it.  But you have moments that creep in - the "what-ifs" that can destroy you if you let them.

I chose...and continue to choose - to fight this with all the hope and faith that I have.  And in doing so I have beat it!!!  As many read on Facebook, my pathology after surgery was ALL CLEAR!!  No cancer cells left anywhere!  Thank you God!  Is my journey done? Not completely.  I am still facing 6 weeks of radiation to be sure I have beat this - but that's easy.  Compared to chemo and surgery - I got this radiation faced already!

I can't thank all of you enough for the love, support, prayers, messages - all of it is appreciated more than you know and it worked!!!!  

Surgery updates:
I had my surgery on Thursday, October 9th.  All went well.  It was about a 6 hour procedure, which was a long one, but again - all went well.  I had a bilateral mastectomy with immediate reconstruction (expanders placed for final surgery next year), along with a lymph node dissection on the left.  In all my surgeon removed 25 lymph nodes in my left arm where the cancer was originally found - a total of 3 appeared to have had cancer at one point but none at time of surgery.  And no cancer anywhere in any tissue.  The chemo worked!!!  Makes all those yucky days 100% worth it because it worked!

Overall recovery has been going well.  I have not had near the pain I expected - mostly it's been pressure or discomfort so far with most pain coming from the drains.  At this time I still have 3 drains in place (5 total; two were removed last week).  Hopefully more or all will come out this week.  But I honestly can't complain.  Dave has been taking great care of me, the boys, the house - which makes it all easier!  Thank you honey!

In closing, I leave you with three of my favorite songs that I have listened to a lot lately.  They just speak to me - and I hope they speak to you wherever you are today.

Jeremy Camp - He Knows - this is actually a very new song, just released at the end of September but it spoke to my heart the moment I heard it.  Never forget - He knows!

Phil Wickham - Safe - this one just touches my heart and I replay it in my head over and over when I need to feel safe in His arms!

The Mrs - Enough - I saw this one go around Facebook about a promotion they did in a mall and it just spoke to me.  Ladies - never forget - we are ENOUGH just as we are!