And so here I am…

In the immortal lyrics of Kelly Clarkson, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. It’s true, but not until after a lot of sleepless nights, worry, some tears and countless other emotions.

If you’re just joining me on this journey, here’s the details. On January 10th I got the call no one wants to hear, “looks like it could be cancer.” After a routine mammogram in November that found suspicious calcifications, I had a diagnostic mammogram and biopsy. The biopsy found borderline Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS), cancer in the milk ducts. The good news… it’s early stage and non-invasive and with treatment it’s not life threatening. The bad news… it’s still cancer and they treat it that way. So, on February 17th I had a lumpectomy to remove the area and prayed that it was not cancer. My Breast Surgeon felt confident that they found it early, and it was just abnormal cells. One week later I went for my follow-up appointment. Pathology came back… it WAS cancer. Still non-invasive, but they didn’t get clear margins. So more surgery was needed. My heart went into my stomach and my head was spinning. I’m so grateful that my husband was there, because I’m not sure I was mentally present for the rest of the appointment. My doctor told me it’s still a small enough area to have a lumpectomy for clear margins, but some women choose a mastectomy so they can avoid further treatment and concern of future breast cancer. She would do either one, the choice was mine. Lumpectomy is normally followed with radiation and hormone blocking medication (both can have horrible side-effects). Mastectomy is a long recovery and could lead to future surgery for reconstruction adjustments. She told me to take a few weeks to decide and gave me referral’s for a radiation oncologist and a couple plastic surgeons.

The next few weeks were emotionally the most difficult weeks of my life. There are so many things I could say about this time and ALL I went through to make my decision, but maybe I’ll save all those details for another blog post. I’m forever grateful for my family and close friends that helped me through that few weeks. After many sleepless nights, lots of tears, a lot of research and a more few tests, I decided to have another lumpectomy. That surgery is schedule for Thursday, 4/21. I told my doctor to take out more tissue that she needs to make sure I get very wide-margins. One thing I learned during my deciding period, is that I will not need radiation after the lumpectomy. After further testing, the radiation oncologist told me that radiation would not significantly lower my risk of the cancer returning. I was so happy to hear this, but he quickly told me, that doesn’t mean it’s not coming back. He explained that my cancer was almost entirely fed by estrogen. The more estrogen my body makes, the greater risk of it coming back. He referred me to a medical oncologist to see if medication will stop the estrogen production – medical menopause.

If you know me, you know I research A LOT when confronted with any difficult situation. And after I heard that the cancer was being fed by my own hormones, I went into over-drive to figure out what I can do naturally to stop by body from producing too much estrogen. The 4 main things- reduce stress, eat a primarily plant-based (no processed/no sugar diet), stop using plastics, and stop using beauty products with chemicals.

And so here I am… among other lifestyle changes, I’ve made a commitment to eat 90% plant based from now on. I’m saving the 10% for when I go to restaurants. I can’t give up my foodie lifestyle and my amazing date nights with my husband. I’ve been primarily plant based for almost a month. In the end, I’m not sure how much effect the plant based diet will have. But right now it allows me to feel some control in an uncontrollable situation. I can say that a plant based diet along with daily yoga, prayer and reduced stress, has made me feel better than I have in years. I always thought I was a very healthy person, but have come to realize that my busy lifestyle that led to stress and a lot processed food was actually making me sick.

My journey is not over yet. What I’ve learned is that I can’t make any assumptions about what’s next until I handle whatever is next. A better way to say it, I only focus on one step at a time. My next step is my surgery. Right now I’m concentrating on staying healthy before my surgery, being present for my family and healing quickly afterward. DCIS will not kill me, but in the end it IS making me stronger.

If you have any questions about DCIS or eating a plant based diet, feel free to email me or comment below. Thanks for reading!!