Gyda's Story from New York

The year 2001 seemed to be going so well…. I had a great career in commercial property management at a fabulous downtown office complex in Toronto. I was dating a wonderful guy from Buffalo, NY and enjoying our weekends together. I was active, social and healthy – or so I thought.

I found the lump under my right armpit one day while showering in late November 2001. I thought nothing of it at the time, just made a mental note of it – there were too many other exciting things going on. By the time my boyfriend and I had made it back from a Christmas vacation getaway, the lump was still there, and I thought I’d better get it checked out. After a myriad of tests and examinations, the shocking news was delivered to me – breast cancer.

I was 33 years old. After the shock dissipated, my wonderful and supportive boyfriend came through in the biggest way. I was diagnosed March 4th, 2002. I was engaged March 8th, we were married on March 16th and he arranged for me to have my surgery and treatment at Roswell Park Institute, in Buffalo, NY.

He never left my side, literally and figuratively, during those first few difficult weeks, and we grappled with the options together. After my surgery (lumpectomy with sentinel node treatment resulting in only five lymph nodes removed) we headed right into a grueling six month course of chemotherapy followed by three months of radiation.

A big part of my recovery and sustenance through this difficult time was my wonderful family (including the new in-laws) friends and co-workers – they made everything so much more bearable! After the hair loss, sapped energy, and various other side-effects were over, I went on with life as normal. We were blessed with twin boys in January 2005, after being told that we might never have kids due to the chemotherapy and other fertility problems. I was beginning to think that life couldn’t get any better, especially since we were approaching my five-year anniversary of being cancer free!

The shock of discovering a second cancer in the spring of this year was almost more unbearable than the first diagnosis five years ago. Now I had so much more to live for, my boys were just two and I had gone back to work only eight months earlier to a great job in Buffalo, where we now lived. It was a new primary breast cancer, secretory carcinoma, which is a very rare form of invasive cancer.

Luckily, we had the same team of talented and dedicated surgeons at Roswell as the first time, and with their consultation, we opted for bi-lateral mastectomy with reconstructive surgery. It was much more intensive and painful than I recall the first surgery being, but the sentinel node treatment came back with negative results and I only needed five lymph nodes removed. Because the cancer hadn’t spread, and the lump was progesterone positive, I was a candidate for hormone therapy, which I started in April of this year. I’m keeping my outlook positive, mostly because I refuse to think of the possible negative consequences of my cancer.

I look at all the great and wonderful things in my life and take joy in them – my philosophy is to let the doctors at Roswell worry about treating my condition – they’re the experts, and I don’t need to worry about anything unnecessarily. So I go on with life as normal, and I’m back to Pilates in the mornings, playing tennis, and hoisting two boisterous boys around my house. Life is good, and I plan to live it!

Amherst, New York