One thousand five hundred days.
Thirty-six thousand hours.
Roughly two million, one hundred sixty thousand minutes that I've been fighting cancer.
I became a cancer survivor on d-day, which was August 1, 2013.
However, I started my daily ass-kicking blog on August 28th, which was my very first chemo treatment. Since then, every single day, I have been doing something, enduring something, facing something to shrink cancer, remove cancer or prevent cancer. We brought out the big guns first.... eight rounds of super harsh chemo. (You know it's bad when they have to wear gloves to administer it!) Then surgery. Then radiation. Then more surgery. Now at least ten years of taking an estrogen-suppressing medicine daily... a medicine that gives me hot flashes, added thirty pounds, makes my restless legs worse and makes all of my joints hurt.
October 8 - The warning signs of breast cancer are not the same for all women.
Everyone knows the drill. Get your mammograms. Do your self checks. Investigate any lumps.
But what else? These are important to know, because breast cancer doesn't always announce itself with a lump that you'll feel. I had swelling in my lymph node areas (under my collarbone and arm) for over a year, and some dimpling in the skin of my breast before I ever felt a lump. One of my good friends is a survivor of inflammatory breast cancer, which presents itself as a rash.
Please know your body. If something doesn't feel right, look right or seem right, get checked. It's better to be an alarmist and have it turn out to be nothing. Be your own advocate. Trust me, you would much rather worry for nothing than wait and have your worst fears come true.
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