The day my mom first let me feel the lump in her breast, was one of the worst days of my life. I say one of, because there were many more over the next twelve years of her battle. It was late in the year 1999 on that horrible day and by that time she had waited way too long from the first day she felt it start growing and when she told me. You see, my mother NEVER went to the doctor. She never had her yearly mammograms or pap tests or anything. She had this big medical book that she diagnosed herself from. So, she immediately started telling me she thought it was this or that kind of tumor and I told her I didn't care she was seeing a doctor! And so it began. I got her an appointment with a doctor who sent her to a surgeon and the next thing you know, I am waiting to hear if the biopsy was cancerous or not. Of course it was, but my mother just smiled and said, "Well, let's get rid of it then. And I'm glad it's not one of you girls". So the chemo started.
After several rounds of chemo and radiation, she was cancer free. For 4 1/2 years. Then it started coming back. It came back in her bones first. So she had chemo. It came back in her liver. She had chemo. It was in her lungs. More chemo. One time it was in her bone, liver, and lungs at the same time. For 12 long years my mother had chemo. Her Oncologist said she was the best patient. And she never gave up. She was so brave. She had neuropathy so bad in her legs , caused by the chemo, that she finally could not walk so she went to a nursing home to do rehab. But things went downhill there and she was gone in a couple of weeks. She was 68 when she first got breast cancer and 81 when she died. My mom, my hero. I miss you.
Muskogee, OK