Hallelujah!

So there I was, standing in the ketchup aisle at the commissary [grocery store for you non-military folks] and my phone rings. It was my breast surgeon Dr S. He was calling with the results of my final pathology report from surgery. "Good news!" he said. "Everything came back clear". He said some other mumbo jumbo I didn't hear it all because I was so happy I was trying not to cry in the ketchup aisle. Basically the 2 lymph nodes they removed and the tissue surrounding the tumor - called margins - were all clean and cancer free!! This means the cancer has not spread to anywhere else in my body. This also labels my cancer as 'stage 1' since it was not found in any lymph nodes, and the tumor was smaller than 2cm. In addition to this, I will not need to have radiation since my lymph nodes are clean.

Even after all this good news, I will still need chemotherapy. It is rare that surgery alone is ever the only treatment for cancer. Even though we caught my cancer early and it appears to all be gone, there are no guarantees. Due to my age and good health status, we committed early on to an aggressive treatment plan - hence the double mastectomy. I love my surgeon and trust that he did a great job removing the tumor, but to ensure that every single microscopic cancer cell in my body is gone, I will undergo chemo to be 100% sure. It seems kind of crazy to put my body through the wringer after getting such good news that the cancer is gone, but it will be worth it. I want to live a carefree life knowing I did all I could to better myself and minimize any recurrence.


You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.
Acts 2:28