living with cancer

by Evelyn Gardner

​On September 15, 2011 at age 28 I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and it was the scariest day of my life, or so I thought at the time. Days after I was informed that the cancer had already started to spread to my bones. I was beyond scared and all I could think about was my husband Corey and our three children Vaneia (8), Corey Jr. (3), and Valarie (2).

I started chemotherapy right away, Adriamycin, Cytoxan followed by Taxol, a very aggressive treatment. I was on that treatment until October 31, 2011 and then I was placed on Tamoxifen. In February 2012 I decided to have a double mastectomy, and that was painful both physically and mentally. I thought I would never recover, but I did. Just when I was starting to be okay with things I got more bad news.

At my monthly doctor’s appointment I was told my incision where not healing correctly, and I was given a PET scan. The results showed new spots in my bones, and I was told I would be doing chemotherapy again. In November of 2012 I started Abraxene and things seemed to be going fine. But after a couple of months I started noticing numbness in my fingers and toes. I was in the beginning stages of neuropathy one of the side effects of this new treatment. So I continued with this treatment for a little while longer until my tumor markers started to rise, and I was then placed on Havalen, another type of chemotherapy. Since it was stronger than the last one, I would be getting a low dose. At that point and time in my life I was just plain tired of everything that had to do with me having cancer, but I knew I had to be strong for my family.

As though that wasn’t hard enough, the neuropathy was getting worse. It was starting to make my legs numb and slowly moving up. My treatment dosage was then lowered. That worked for a short while, but in the middle of October is was becoming hard for me to walk. So after discussing it with the doctor we decided I needed to stop the treatment, and start receiving Faslodex, a hormone suppressant. So after getting another PET scan and making sure I didn’t have any new spots, and the spots I already had were under control, I started the Faslodex in November of 2013.

In January 2014 at a routine appointment I was told my hormone levels had become extremely high over a matter of weeks because my ovaries were working overtime to replace the hormones the Faslodex were destroying, and I would need to have them removed. So on February 3rd I had my ovaries and tubes removed. and I am happy to say they were cancer-free. With the support of my husband, Corey, my family, in-laws, friends, the Beyond Pink TEAM and Splash of Color, I will continue to fight this on-going battle with cancer and enjoy each day I am here with my family. 

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