Her story: In March my dad comes home from work and he has to tell my mom that he has been let go at work. He is 62 years old and has been working since he was 9 years old. They start to worry about how they are going to make it. Then he finds out that he is going to lose the insurance that they have. My mom decides to go and make doctor appointments so they can be checked out before the insurance runs out. To her surprise she went for a mammogram and it came back positive for breast cancer. She and my dad were under so much stress as to what to do next. Luckily his boss decided to keep him on part time with a major pay cut, but he was able to secure the insurance for 2 months. Mom was very angry at the fact that she had it, and then the feelings changed to sad, as if these were her last days. I told her that I felt as though she would be fine, I could feel it in my heart a sense of peace that she would be fine. I talked with a friend who recently lost her sister in law to breast cancer so she knew of a doctor. I called and got my mom all set up with Dr. Schnaper and mom was a little more at peace. She met the doctor and she took over two hours with my mom explaining everything to her. To her surprise it was small and that it was post menopause and her chances for survival were high! The sound in my mom's voice when she called me after talking to the doctor was priceless, like she was given hope of life once again. She went for tests and pre-op and all was well for surgery day. She had surgery on May 7, 2009 and it went well and the doctor said that she only needed to take out one lymph node. After waiting for an hour and forty minutes to finally go back and see my mom, it was so sweet to see her sitting in a chair with her hair a little mangled in the back and BIG smile on her face. The first thing she said to me is; I am ready to go! She is so strong and she makes me smile every time I think of her! She declined any pain medications and no Tylenol or Advil either, that is some kind of pain tolerance! I know things happen for a reason and I can see why my dad lost his job. It was to make sure my mom went to the doctor and they could find this and it could be fixed! So sometimes you think all this stuff is happening and it is so overwhelming at the time and then you take a step back and you sometimes if you are lucky can see the big picture! I am so happy that so far all is well with mom and we can report a happy story! It is amazing how people come together in time of need for support. My mom told me I had the best friends she has ever met! They have sent prayers, angels, cards, flowers and well wishes and she said it all helped and it made it so much easier! |
