May 12, 2024 - 5 Years, oh and Happy Mother's Day!

Spring is always a busy time in our household. We have birthdays, anniversaries, Mother’s Day, oh….and anniversaries! This year was especially interesting. May is my birthday month, and every 4-5 years (depending on Leap Years), my birthday can fall on Mother’s Day. This year was not that year, but it was a repeat of my 5 year anniversary. Lost yet? I can explain!

In 2019, I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. The very thing that caused me to start this blog: In the Beginning

I was officially diagnosed on May 21, 2019, but I will never forget the days leading up to it. Let’s go back, shall we??

It was Thursday, May 9, 2019. It was my 50th birthday, which I was celebrating at a work conference in Orlando. It wasn’t all bad, as our entertainment for the customer event was Lady Gaga. I had primo seats and enjoyed a fun dinner with girlfriends, then finished the night out belting Shallow and Bad Romance! For being away on my birthday, the celebration was epic!

I flew home to my boys on Friday and we had a fun weekend which lead to Sunday, May 12th, Mother’s Day! My boys did an awesome job of spoiling me on that day. On Sunday night, after Mason was in bed, Jamie and I watched an episode of Game of Thrones. I have to admit, that show wasn’t really my jam, so as the scenes are rolling, I’m a little bored. I just happened to rub my chest and felt this noticeably hard lump that was not ordinary, nor was it supposed to be there. I waited until the show was over, but immediately went to Jamie and asked him to feel it. His first reaction was, “what the hell is that?” My heart began to sink. It was Sunday night, and there was nothing to “do” at that point.

There was nothing to do except worry. Read too much Dr. Google and fret.

On Monday AM, I was back on a plane flying down to Naples for a customer meeting. I did not have a “breast care doctor” where we lived. Unfortunately, healthcare is not very robust in the tiny beach town that we once called home. So, as I was connecting in the ATL airport I used the time to call Breast Care Specialists of Atlanta. They were my doctors when we lived in Atlanta. They still had my records, and once I told them what I felt, they scheduled me an appointment on Tuesday, May 21st. The time between May 12th and May 21st sludged on. Time hardly moved. I was so anxious to go to the doctor, but all I could do was wait. Finally, Tuesday May 21st arrived.

Breast Care Specialists do it all. They run all of the diagnostics (mammograms, sonograms, biopsies, etc.). They knew the biopsy would be cancerous. They prepared me well. May 21st, the day my life changed, the day I was officially told I had breast cancer.

Why all the history? Well the days of the calendar lined up this year. My 55th birthday was Thursday, May 9th and Mother’s Day was on May 12th. The timing brought everything back.

For those of you who have read my blog from the beginning, you know that my cancer metastasized to my brain in July 2020. I had an emergency craniotomy and have been in treatment with chemotherapy and targeted therapy infusions ever since.

Ever since? It’s been 5 years! (4 years since I was diagnosed with Stage IV, but 5 years since Stage III). This is BEYOND a miracle. I have never been one to live my life by statistics, but according to an abstract, “The median overall survival for all patients was 45.6 months. The median time from the diagnosis of breast cancer to the occurrence of brain metastasis was 29.7 months, and the median survival time after brain metastasis was 7.2 months.”¹

I have beat the statistics! My hope is that I keep crushing it. My next Brain MRI is in June and my next full PET scan is in August. I pray the results keep proving my Chemo cocktail is working! The side effects are not pleasant, but dang, it is keeping me alive! I’m in for it.

This week was super special. We had friends from Chicago and Atlanta visit. Mason was confirmed on my 55th birthday, Thursday May 9th. I was thankful that my tribe of girlfriends gifted me with a birthday pool party filled with love and laughter on the 10th. And then on Sunday the 12th, my boys spoiled me with brunch and lots of love for Mother’s Day. My heart is full.

1. Simsek M, Aliyev A, Baydas T, et al. Breast Cancer Patients with Brain Metastases: A Cross-Sectional Study. Breast J. 2022;2022:5763810. Published 2022 Aug 19. doi:10.1155/2022/5763810