Why not me?

I was diagnosed with two types of breast cancer at the age of 32 in 1999 after I discovered a lump in my right breast. My gynecologist checked it out and reassured me that it was a cyst, but to come back in 6 months. I knew in my heart that it was a tumor and after some convincing, my doctor gave me the necessary referral. When trying to schedule an appointment with a breast specialist, I was considered a low risk and told the next available appointment was months away. Once again I persisted and was given an appointment the following week. Then after an ultrasound and subsequent lumpectomy, I received the news...CANCER. I was dating, though never married with any children and egg harvesting was not an option, I began chemotherapy immediately. After that harrowing experience, I agreed to a double mastectomy to prevent me from having to do chemo ever again. Then came the tamoxifen and early menopause and what I believed the end of my chance to have a baby. After three years, I stopped taking the tamoxifen. My body recovered and I began menstruating again. My doctor advised me to wait three more years before trying to conceive and told me that fertility treatments were not an option because it would require my estrogen levels to be dangerously high. The cancer could return had all of the cancer cells not have been eradicated by the tamoxifen treatment. My husband, the man I had been dating when I was first diagnosed, and I conceived naturally in December of 2008. We now have a beautiful baby girl, Sophia!!! Had all of this not happened as it did, this exact child would not have been mine. So I thank God for my cancer that showed me that I had a man who proved he would stay with me through ANYTHING and gave me the strength to be a mother which I had at one time doubted in the past. I will celebrate my ten years of being cancer free this fall. There is much more to this story that one day I will write for my daughter.