My Story...

My story began in March of 2016, when a mammogram showed some "odd." I went the next day and had a biopsy. Yes, it was cancer, but it was just a small nodule. I had a lumpectomy. None of my lymph nodes had any cancer. When I went back to my oncologist to discuss treatment, she said a place lit up in the lower left lobe of my lung and she wanted me to have a biopsy. Lung...biopsy...I'm frightened out of my mind! In the midst of all this I had to take the genetic test because my sister, having had cancer 6 times, has a very rare gene, which is supposedly the only one in the US. By the way, she has cancer again. I don't have the same gene she does, so neither will my daughter. The biopsy showed cancer in the lower left lobe. The removed it. I did two strong treatments of chemo for my breast and 27 rounds of radiation for my lung. There were some small places in my upper chest that needed zapping. It's been over a year now for both cancers and as of this past Tuesday, there was no evidence of cancer anywhere.

Yes, I was a smoker for 40 years and that is why I have COPD. I'm on oxygen 24/7. I was taking the pulmonary rehab and getting better, but I got bronchitis and had to stop 'til it cleared up. About the time it cleared up, I fell in the house. I didn't think I'd hurt myself, but I was so sore for two weeks or more. Before I could get over the fall I got a cold with a terrible cough. The pulmonologist put me on prednisone. The cold didn't go away and I'm on my 2nd round of prednisone. The oncologist gave me a Z-Pak the other day with a refill for it if I wasn't over the cold after 7 days. If two Z-Paks don't knock it out, I just don't know! I'm having trouble breathing, so it's hard for me to walk from the SUV to the doctors' offices. I'm doing my breathing exercises to expand my lungs. Be patient and JUST BREATHE! GOD will see me through this.