On December 12, 2008, I became another statistic. A woman with breast cancer, but at the age of 26.
Leading up to this date, I spoke with a friend who had a lump in her breast, got it checked out and it was nothing; I ran into a friend from college who had been diagnosed with testicular cancer at the age of 29; and I continued to have dreams about my Mema who had only passed away two months before. Cancer was all too close to my heart.
One day, I felt something that seemed a bit unfamiliar. So I went to the OBGYN and the doctor said, "Well, this doesn't seem like anything. But due to your family history (Mema), let's have it checked out."
Next thing I knew, I was in for an ultrasound. The radiologist saying, "This really doesn't seem like anything. But perhaps we should do a biopsy."
In a few short days, I was getting results from this biopsy that I had stage 1 cancer in my left breast. At the age of 26.
Then on December 12, I was at my office, just about to help with wrapping Christimas gifts for homeless families during lunchtime when I found out. Moments after the words were uttered from my doctor, I started crying and then stopped, and made a decision. I was going to fight this and not cry, not get upset, but make a conscious decision to beat the heck out of cancer with a smile on my face, lipstick on my lips and heels on my feet. I would not feel like a cancer patient, but just Kara, with a temporary disease.
So here's my story of how I beat breast cancer.
I wish I had someone my age going thru it when I was treated. It would have been nice to have someone to relate to. It's hard enough having cancer, but breast cancer at 21! It was a great journey and I'm happy to hear yours was as well.
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