Our individual stories from sisters with Stage IV and Metastatic breast cancer

Maureen Carney Moore

My name is Maureen Carney Moore and I am 63 years old. I was a pretty
active woman between working and raising my 3 girls. Their dad had died at 41 of
cancer and they were only 12,10 and 7 at the time. I guess because of his
disease, I really think I took better care of myself, watching my fat
intake(although I was not skinny but not over weight) and exercising.

I remarried and my girls grew up and I did my thing, still exercising and
trying to watch what I ate. In 1999, my husband and I were in Ireland and staying
at my cousins, the day before we left I felt a lump in my breast as I was
drying off from my shower. I was a little nervous but since I just felt it and
had mammograms every year I thought it's probably a Fibroid Tumor. We arrived
home on Sunday night and that night I woke up with a terrible pain in my chest
and side, my husband wanted to take me to the hospital, thinking it was my
heart (my family has heart problems not cancer). I said wait awhile and stayed up
for reading and as the time went on I realized the pain was coming from my
right side, so I figured it wasn't my heart. We had just moved to RI from GA in
Jan and this was August and I hadn't seen my new doctor yet but was scheduled
for a physical the end of the week.I called the doctor's office as soon as
they opened and they had me come in right away.

She had me have a Ultrasound and it came back that I had an infected
sebaceous cyst and the area around the nipple was red, my doctor gave me an antibiotic
and told me to come back in a week. The following week when I went back the
cyst was gone but the pain wasn't, she than ordered a mammogram since the pain
wasn't as bad as the week before. It just showed increased density and to keep
an eye on it. My doctor than sent me to a Breast Surgeon who had me have
another Ultrasound which now said that the cyst was gone but breast tissue in the
subareolar region looked suspicious and recommended a biopsy, which they did
and found out I had " Invasive Carcinoma with Lobular and Ductal Features". I
pretty much figured I had cancer by than but since I had been so careful with
my health and since I felt they caught it in time I was sure it would be
maybe a stage 1 and they would just have to do a lumpectomy. After my dx they
ordered a Cat and Bone Scan and then I went back to my surgeon who told me there
would be No surgery because it had already metastasized to the bones. Since my
mother -in-law had died of breast cancer I knew about metastases.

I can't begin to tell you how shocked I was, I looked at my husband expecting
him to say I was dreaming and this wasn't happening to me, we were at a time
in our lives that the children were raised and college was over and we were
having fun traveling. I also couldn't believe I had to tell my children that
their Mom was going to die of cancer, they remembered what their dad went
through and because it was the 4 of us for so long we were very close, now I had
to tell them they were going to go through it all over again and it just broke
my heart. My husband and I had so looked forward to this time in life, we had
our first grandson who was the light of my life, my girls were a joy to be
around and we were so proud of them, and to be faced with the fact that I could
be dead in 1-3 years was just heartbreaking.

I have to say it took me about 6 - 8 months to stop getting up in the middle
of the night wondering about every pain, trying to decide if the cancer was
moving to some new place and to realize I wasn't going to die that fast because
I wasn't ready and I wanted to see my girls marry and see the rest of my
grandchildren. So I'm back to trying to exercise (not like I use to) I stay active
with my volunteer work and with my grandsons and I take one day at a time. My
husband and I can't dance as much as we like because of my bone pain but we
do travel and he has the patients of a saint with me and we do enjoy life.