Why I am walking . . .

I can still remember the day when my Mom and Dad came to our apartment to tell us that Mom had Breast Cancer. Ben and I were sitting down in the pampasan chair and they let us know that she has cancer and before our wedding she is going to have surgery. Since she is just having a lumpectomy, she will have to have Chemo and Radiation both. But she did not want to start her treatment until after we were married. She was so strong throughout her whole series of treatments and surgery, stronger than I would have thought she could be. I was so proud of her.

About a month before my wedding we went do to Tyler, Texas for her surgery. It turned out to be an out patient surgery, that means she was able to come home the same day. In the end I think it might have been better for her to stay over night but I do not think Dad would have liked that very much. We kept getting reports about the number of lymph nodes they removed throughout the day, and the number kept growing. I began to think how could they take any more, how much of her breast is going to be left. Or why do they not just take it all and be done with it, after all they can make new ones.

See the reason I think it took so long was the she also has fibro-cystic breast disease which makes her breast very dense. That in its self can make it hard to detect breast cancer, which she probably had years before her surgery but do to some outstanding factors, never came to light until almost ten years ago. That is another story in and of it self.

After the surgery Mom came back and was still very sleepy from the drugs and just needed to rest. Once she had finished this process we made our way home until she would have to go back for treatments, two days after we were married.

I remember that it was several weeks later that we saw them again, and Mom had previously called and we were talking about how here hair was starting to fall out. You always hope that your hair won't fall out but it still happened. She walks up and I was not sure what to expect from the hair loss but what I saw was not what I expected. She looked as if she had very, very thin hair. You could see her scalp, which has never seen the light of day until now. Her hair is really very thick so it was strange to see this woman I know and love with so little hair.

You know what she wore her hair, or lack there of, proudly. Never once did it slow her down or make her feel like less of a woman. Once she lost her hair the only time she would wear a hat was when she went to church. In support of her, the ladies at the church all began to wear hats too. You would have thought that we lived in the deep South and went to a Baptist Church. The support the ladies showed meant so much to me and my family. Cancer is not a one person ordeal it affects so many people.

My brother and father both shaved their heads, Ben said he would do it too, because I felt that I should show my support and shave my head. Ben did not like that idea to much. It was risky for Adam to shave his head since he was in his last year at the Air Force Academy, and they tend to frown on whole head shaves but it all worked out.

I also remember the way the chemo affected my mom and her body after her treatments. It took almost the whole two weeks and sometimes three to recover enough to be able to get the next treatment. Sometimes she would have to lie in bed because she was so weak or would get sick because the chemicals were so strong she could hardly keep anything down. Cancer sucks the life out of you, and makes your life hard.

At least now she is doing well and has been cancer free for the last nine years. She does have to take a daily drug to keep the cancer hormones at bay, but other than that she is doing well and keeping healthy.

I wanted to share with you the picture that they had taken during her treatments for the pictorial directory. The photographer did not want to use the picture because of her lack of hair but she said no, this is how I look right now. She was not going to let cancer get in the way of her life.

I hope that all of you never have to go through Breast Cancer any type of cancer for that matter. Right now your donation will help make that a reality for many. If you have not donated please do so by clicking on the button on the right or by visiting my facebook page. Together we can kick cancer to the curb.