I was 40 when I was first diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer. My first mammogram ever revealed breast cancer, which was pretty scary. I went through the entire protocol. Shortly after what was supposed to be the end of treatment, I began feel pain and none of my doctors listened. I trusted them. I listened to everything they said, and even though I’m a nurse, I believed in what they told me because I was naïve and didn’t know what I didn’t know. My cancer came back in 2022 as stage 4.
I think the most challenging thing thus far has been not losing myself, the psychosis. Cancer wants everything, and ultimately it’s up to each patient to decide whether or not they’re going to let this one thing about themselves become everything. I refuse to do that. I took a stand, and I fought in the places that I could fight—because there are some things that are out of our hands, but there are many things that we still have control over. I want people to know that the challenge is to see past the diagnosis. There’s so much life beyond it, even while you’re thick of it.
