Linda Bounds 1/23/05 Hi. My name is Linda Bounds and I am 44 years old, soon to turn 45 in March. My battle with breast cancer began back in May of 2001. About 2 weeks earlier around the last of April, I found a lump under my left axilla while taking a shower. Something about it just did not feel right. I immediately made an appointment with my family practice doctor to have it examined. She felt it and said that she thought it was just a fibrocystic spot, which a lot of people have. She said we could just wait and see; that it was nothing to worry about since I had just had my first mammogram six months earlier, which was normal. In my heart this just didn’t feel right and I insisted on a mammogram. She sent me to a different facility to have it done. After the third time the mammogram tech told me to come back for another picture, I knew something wasn’t right. Then they said they wanted to do an ultrasound that day. An ultrasound confirmed the presence not only of enlarged lymph nodes under my left arm, but a large tumor in my left breast that my dr. and I had both missed. It was 4cm x 6cm which is very large. I was immediately set up for a biopsy. They took about 4 samples from enlarged nodes, there were too many to test all of them. About a week later I was called to the surgeon’s office where she confirmed that I had cancer. I’ll never forget the look on my Mom’s face. She said that she wished it could be her instead of me. The surgeon said she was setting me up for a mastectomy the next week. It was like a bad dream. Things moved quickly from there. I was sent that day to confer with oncologist Dr. Elihu Root, who is a gift from God in my opinion. It was lunch time and that man took time with my mom and me and explained what my treatment would be. My tumor was so large, that I would have to do chemotherapy before having surgery. I then did 5 months of various chemos, followed by a radical mastectomy right before Thanksgiving; then in the spring after recovering from surgery I did six weeks of radiation. I continued on a drug called Herceptin, which had resulted in the disappearance of any traces of breast tumors. Little did we know that the cancer was lurking, waiting to wreak its havoc in my body. I decided to do reconstructive surgery in October of 2002. My mom had tried to talk me out of it, because she thought I should have an enjoyable holiday without the pain of surgery recovery as I had the year before. But I just felt pushed to get it over and get on with my life. My oncologist, Dr. Root said he wanted to get a bone scan just to check things out before I had the surgery. I had it done without worrying at all about anything except my pending surgery which was all set. I was ready to have that tummy tuck and get some new boobs. I had been having some midback pain, which was gradually getting worse, but I thought it was because of the way I had been sleeping or simply arthritis. When Dr. Root called me and said that a tumor had been found in my spine, I was totally shocked. It was like a boxer had just punched me in the stomach and I had no air in my lungs. Dennis, my husband was there and asked me what was wrong. We just cried and cried. I knew what stage four meant, but had never been told or considered it could happen to me. I was immediately scheduled for ten radiation treatments, which was a piece of cake compared to the 30 I had done before. Then I started on chemotherapy again. I lost my hair, again. I gained weight on steroids, again. I was placed on chemo, a bone strengthener and continued on the Herceptin going every three weeks. I did the same chemotherapy, a drug called Taxotere for 18 months straight and it kept my cancer stable. In April of 2004, a new spot was found on bone scan, this time in my left hip. So I was changed to a new chemo called Navelbine, which is actually not bad. I have more hair right now than I have had in 3 years. I have a great quality of life in my opinion. Not as much energy as I would like, but do any of us? I don’t worry about every ache and pain. I try to live each day to the fullest, but a lot of days I’m just too tired to do anything and that’s okay. I save my energy for the important things, my family and friends. So far, the Navelbine seems to be working at keeping me stable, which is the really the best that I can hope for. I have a tremendous support system in my family; my church and wonderful friends; without which I wouldn’t make it. Most of my closest friends have come into my life only in the past two years or so, then there are the friends I’ve always been able to count on. Also I have my mets sisters who are there for me, and I for them 24 hours a day. Ours is a club no one wants to join, but thank God we have each other. I have a wonderful husband and two little boys to fight for, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do until I feel like the Lord say’s, “Enough Linda.” Then I will without fear go on to my next journey, which is truly just the beginning as the following verse reflects. The Day of Death The day of death is when two worlds meet with a kiss: this world going out, the future world coming in. Jewish prayer by Jose ben Abin
|
||
