Let Today Be The First Day..... You are grateful!

This is my mom, "The Breast Cancer Survivor" going on 16yrs... To think "They" said she wouldn't make it to see the year after they diagnosed her.... #But God!!

I told you all I would be featuring her story of triumph and I am pleased to say today is the day! These are her words and who better to tell their story than the one who has gone through it all. I encourage you to tell a friend, share this story, or even remember those that we have lost and that are battling this disease known as Breast Cancer. I proudly introduce my mother Wanda Pace Myers to you all...

Hello, my name is Wanda Pace Myers; in May of 1996 I was instructed by my doctor to get a mammogram because I had reached that great age of 40. Matter of fact I was half way to 41.  When I got the mammogram I was called by my doctor to come in and see him.  When I went in he wanted to do a biopsy on the lump he had seen on the film of my left breast.After doing the biopsy it was determined that I only had calcification's probably resulting from milk drying in my milk ducts from giving birth to my children.

In September of that same year, 1996, I was taking a shower and as always checking out my body as best as I could.  Never thinking I would feel anything.  I looked down as I got into the shower and saw what I thought was bruising.  I touched it and felt pain and a lump.  My first thought was that it can’t be cancer because “they” say cancer isn’t painful, it doesn’t cause bruising and you can’t see the lump only a difference in the feel.  My cancer went against all of those textbook symptoms.  That’s why it pays for you to know your body and if it doesn’t feel right to you don’t stop until you get the answer that satisfies you.

I don’t allow myself to even think of what might have happened if I wasn’t as persistent as I was with finding out what I thought was the truth about this thing that had invaded my body. I got out of the shower and went in to show my husband and said “do you think this is cancer?”  No, it could be anything. Don’t worry about it were the words he used to reassure me.  I didn’t want to, but it remained in the back of my mind. 

I called the doctor that had handled the first procedure, but he was out of town.  I then called my medical doctor and he told me, just as I couldn’t feel and tell anything, he couldn’t feel and tell anything but he would order a mammogram for me. I got the mammogram and was told by him that nothing showed up and it was probably just something from clogged ducts or something similar.  I accepted that and continued to feel each day.

When the surgeon got back in town, I called him and he called in a prescription for antibiotics and told me to take those and by the time I finished taking them if it was infection, it would have cleared up by then. It didn’t, so I kept worrying him and he finally had me come into the office to have a needle biopsy.  He felt that it wouldn’t be anything, but we were going to be safe and put my mind at ease.  He called me the next day and asked me to come into the office.  My question to him was “is it cancer?”  He said I don’t think so it could just be abnormal cells.

I went in for the procedure.  He removed the tissue and the lymph nodes that surrounded it.  He had it tested while I was still in recovery and was waiting at my bedside when I woke up to tell me the news.  It was news he said neither of us wanted to hear, that it was in fact cancer.  He told me my options and I, having already made my peace with what I wanted to do, decided to have a radical mastectomy of my right breast.

I had to go through seven months of chemotherapy and extensive checkups as the months went on.  Why all of this to tell my story that could have been told in a few lines?  Well we all have a history and this cancer had a history with my body before it was discovered and dealt with.  What the cancer didn’t expect was to have a relationship with a person as stubborn as I am and someone that had other things going for them in their lives as well as having the desire to continue to live and raise my children by the grace of God.

I had and still have a lot of things going for me and I never will forget any of them:

1.      I was an still am a Christian and I believed and still believe in a higher power and

  went to Him in prayer (I still am a praying woman).                         

2.      I had great doctors that had my best interest in mind.

3.      I had and continue to have a great husband that supported me in whatever decision

   I made and didn’t marry me for the parts on my body.

4.      I had and continue to have a great family that stood by me through it all.

5.      I had and still have all my friends that were there every step of the way.

With all of this and my belief and faith in God, I can say today that I am a 16 year breast cancer survivor.

You need to keep a positive attitude, get rid of all the negative people in your life and keep those true friends around that when they ask “how you are doing” or” how your day is going” they stop and take the time to really listen to you and don’t have to say a word, just be there for you no matter the day or the hour. Now, my cancer happened 16 years ago and I am still here.  Can you imagine the advances they have made in medicine and treatment of this disease as well as coming closer to a cure for this and other types of cancers? Find out whatever it is you need to know about this disease and what you can do on your end to make sure you are a survivor. I believe deep in my heart that as we think and feel, it has a place in the outcome of whatever we are going through.  I never thought I wouldn’t survive this disease.

Now on the brighter side of things, I had heard that going through chemotherapy treatments for cancer you would lose weight and lose your hair.  Your hair would come back as if it was baby fine and curly. I’ve always believed that there is some good in everything, and I was looking forward to losing these extra pounds and having that beautiful head of hair that I only would have to wash and brush.  Not so, I didn’t lose any weight and I still have the hair I have to do more than wash and go. My doctor said I was the first patient he had treated that never lost the weight or the hair.  But I am thankful to God that in all of this I didn’t lose my life and most of all my faith and trust in Him.

Before the cancer, I loved sweet potatoes.  After the cancer I didn’t want to see another sweet potato.  My father had read somewhere that the ingredients in the sweet potato would help fight the cancer and every day I got home he had my sister at my house with sweet potatoes cooked in every way he knew how.  I had candied yams, sweet potato soufflé, potato pies, potato bread, mashed sweet potatoes, fried sweet potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, if he could dream it and cook it, I had it.  I love my dad, but I was so glad when he stopped sending all those sweet potatoes to me, by my sister.

What my mom would like to leave with you all is simply this: "Keep your head up; remain close to God, your family, and your true friends".

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