This Was No Coincidence

Preface To Write Is My Right After experiencing a sixth intense lifeshock, I started journaling my thoughts and emotions throughout my own cancer journey. The amazing woman who diagnosed me inspired me to collect my thoughts into journal entries that might one day help other young women diagnosed with breast cancer. As cliché as that sounded, I accepted her heartfelt request with all admiration to her and faith that my experience would help her daughters one day. This book wouldn’t have been completed without her motivation and would not be complete without a synopsis of her own inspiring story. Dr. H’s mother was diagnosed at 35 and died of metastatic breast cancer at 44. When Dr. H was in her third year of medical school she found a lump in her breast. Her doctor said it was nothing to worry about and that it was most likely fibroadenoma. This is a common diagnosis told to young women, the same one the doctors had told me. Dr. H had a professor look at her slides without identifying them as hers. The professor remarked that the slides resembled the breast biopsy of a 45-year-old woman with atypical hyperdisplasia and that in two years that person would most likely get breast cancer. Based on her knowledge and experience, Dr. H was determined to get a double mastectomy. She was 28, and at that time it was unheard of to do a radical removal for preventive purposes. She bypassed the stigma and the mindtalk that she would become a spinster. She is now happily married and has six children. Her story doesn’t end there. In 2005 her husband was diagnosed with breast cancer. Yes, men get breast cancer. They fought through the cancer successfully. Later testing showed that both had the BRCA2 gene mutation for breast cancer susceptibility. Of their six children, five are female. Of the five females, one carries this mutation. BRCA2 is only a gene that shows as a marker for the risk of breast cancer. Dr. H will never know whether or not she definitely would have had breast cancer; however, her fight to survive against all odds is a profound example of the courage to live. Studies have shown that writing is therapeutic. Not typing, or having someone else transcribe for you, but the actual process of pen-on-paper writing. Writing can bring truth and clarity. It was no coincidence that Dr. H insisted that I write a book about my truth awakening journey with cancer.