Ladies I wrote a short story regarding my experience and now I'm trying to condense it into 350 words. The best thing I can say to all of you is to keep your sense of humor. It's only a boob or two boobs, if you are fortunate enough to have caught the cancer early, as in my case. I can say that my father-in-law that fought stage four colon cancer for five years and kept his humor through to the end. So it is possible.
Sure, I was mad when the doctor old me. Sure I asked, "Why me?" Then I made the decision that this was my fight and I would face it my way. Not the way others thought I should fight. In so, I did it with my sense of humor. I planned and held a Boob Von Voyage party, with silly hats, noise makers and strings of beads. We all said good by to the girl in style.
My daughter, in the military was able to come home and my husband that was working out of the country was able to make it home the day before the surgery. They had supported my decisions and silliness from day one. When I called my husband and told him I was going to have reconstruction I asked him, "You want regular or porn star size boobs?" He laughed and said, "I don't care baby, I just want you alive and well."
So here I am, into my sixth year of cancer free living and sporting two new tattoos to tell my story. Oh, I had to go with regular size because I have just one implant. I had some very hard days trying to look into the mirror but decided being alive was much more important than how my chest looks. I'm too old to walk around on a nude beach and just looking at me in my clothes, you would never guess what's under my shirt.
Stay well, keep having regular mammograms, and if you get the bad news, keep your sense of humor!
Gilbert, AZ
