Carmen Lives to See Her Grandson Born!

Like many survivors, Carmen reached her lowest of lows during her cancer treatment. Family, sense of humor, determination and lots of prayer helped her through, and she continues to celebrate every day of her life as a survivor!

Breast cancer... those two dreaded words were magnified as they became "the" diagnosis. I saw a tear drop fall on my leg in slow motion and the room around me moved. It was 6/12/06 at 10 am....for a few seconds I floated and then I felt I had to snap out of it. My husband and daughter were attentive to every single word the surgeon was saying.... I was just there.

I had a lumpectomy on 6/27/06, followed by 4 rounds of chemo, 33 radiation treatments, a year of Herceptin and cleared on 10/19/07. That's it in a nutshell. Were there "bad" days??? of course. There was a chemo treatment I dubbed "the weekend from hell"; I felt dropping into a black, black hole; I told my husband I was done, tired of "this @#%^&*"; he took me in his arms and said "babe, there is a light at the end of the tunnel....we'll find it" and we did.

With him, my daughter and son-in-law by my side, my son's voice via telephone and tons and tons of prayer buddies, I made it. Humor was a big part of our ordeal; had photo shoot done with my daughter.. she said to me 'mom, you have cancer, cancer does not have you.. let's get some pictures taken so we can remember what you've overcome" I continue with tests as ordered... I owe it to myself.....

The icing on the cake... my grandson was born 12/15/07, so he and I celebrate our birthdays together... Life is definitely good.....


Carmen A.