Mobilizing for Battle:

After receiving my diagnosis, my body and mind seemed to mobilize for battle. My days became a world-wind of doctor appointments. The whole thing seemed to almost take on a life of its own. After receiving the biopsy results we quickly met with an oncologist from the recommended group to find out my destiny. We discussed whether I would need a mastectomy or whether I could get away with a lumpectomy (just removing the tumor and not my entire breast). After looking me over he thought I would do well with a lumpectomy. I was all for retaining as much of my body as possible. He confirmed that I would need to undergo 6-8 months of chemotherapy followed by 6-8 weeks of radiation treatment to the effected breast. In addition, I would need to take a drug called tamoxifen for 5 years that would fight the cancer causing agents in the estrogen that my body naturally produces. He called it hormone therapy. He promised that I would be able to continue to work full time throughout the chemotherapy which he would administer on Friday afternoons (every three weeks) along with a hefty dose of anti-nausea medicine, steroids and a whole host of other drugs to counter-act the side-effects of the chemotherapy. He said that he had a drug to counter-act every side effect of chemotherapy, except one. I would loose my hair, all of it, within 2 weeks of my first treatment. In addition, I would likely stop ovulating maybe permanently. Even if my cycle came back for a few years, it was certain I would go into early menopause probably before the age of 40. Worst of all, I could not try to get pregnant for at least 5 years after I finished all my treatements. My husband and I had always planned to have at least one more child and in fact had planned to try for a second this year, so this last piece of information was particularly devastating to me. All I could ask myself was how could this be? My mind went into overdrive. I knew that there had been advances in the last few years regarding fertility treatments for cancer patients. I just knew I had heard that someplace, so I immediately went to work to figure out what could be done to preserve my ability to have another child. Something inside me refused to take no for an answer. So I prepared for battle..... not just to save my life but to save the lives of my unborn children.