This is a bit of a long post and I am hoping that you can take a few minutes to read through it. This wasn’t easy for me to write or share:

On March 8, 2012, my world turned upside down when the Doc called and told me that the lump I felt in my breast was in fact malignant. My immediate thoughts went to my Grandmother, who was diagnosed in her 30s and had undergone a single but radical mastectomy. I remembered the summer that I was staying with her in their home in Vermont and I walked in and saw her dressing. I had tried so hard not to look sad when I saw her prosthesis and how much flesh was missing even beyond the breast to her underarms and understood why she always bought high necked clothing to hide her scars. They didn’t know a lot about breast cancer back then and when she was diagnosed so young, they were not about to take any chances and removed any flesh they thought could contain the cancer.

As Breast Cancer runs rampant in my family and almost always reoccurs, I had some tough choices to make. “Choices” Wow, there were so many. I spoke to several friends and family members that had recently undergone surgeries and all the scenarios were different, I was overwhelmed but decided to opt for a bilateral, skin sparing mastectomy with full reconstruction. It would take several surgeries including taking some fat from my abdomen but in the end was the safest way to insure that the cancer would not reoccur and that I would look as normal as possible.

The Malignant Breast tissue after surgery was sent out for Oncotyping to determine how aggressive the cancer was and if Chemo would be necessary. The Lymph nodes were also biopsied. I got lucky. NO CHEMO recommended as the type of cancer that I had and the stage I was at showed that the Chemo would not be effective and the side effects could be harmful. LUCKY.
Breast Cancer research made this all possible. I am almost done with surgery. With the exception of a few touch ups, my breasts have been fully reconstructed removing all of the Cancerous breast tissue. With the exception of a few scars, that will heal and fade away, you would not be able to tell that I had a mastectomy. My scars are hidden. I can wear normal clothing and swimwear. All of this happened in 6 month and all thanks to Breast Cancer Research and progress.

Although I am less than two weeks out of surgery and hurting, I am going to try to do some of the Making Strides for Breast Cancer walk to raise funds for research. If you are interested in helping support this cause and sponsoring me in the Walk, please click on link. My team is WUERTH. Thank you for any amount you are willing to donate. Donations are tax deductible.

Again the team name is WUERTH