Betty's Story

I arrived in Texas during the holiday season in 2007, looking forward to a new life with my twin sister and her husband in East Texas. My son has been in college for two years and i basically was tired of going home to an empty house and working all the time.
I have been divorced for 12 years and was tired of being away from my family. I had a mammogram before i left N.M. in October. By the time the letter found it's way to me, 4 months later i was already living in Texas. I was shocked to see an "abnormality" noted in the letter. I immediately consulted with my family doctor who sent me to Paris Digital Mammogram Clinic where they promptly diagnosed me with invasive breast cancer, estrogen fed. I was absolutely scared to death. I cried a lot, my sister slept with me for days, i could not bear to be alone.

I finally got up the nerve to call my son's father; I could not bear to break the news to Seth, my son. I immediately consulted with a surgeon about a mastectomy, he recommended that I have a lumpectomy with chemo or radiation treatments whichever my oncologist referred me to have. And my cancer is estrogen fed so i was prescribed a new medication (arimidex) which is what i refer to as my "birth control pill" for cancer. It kills all the estrogen in my body which is what the cancer feeds off of.

Long story short, I ended up going to a doctor in Mt. Pleasant, Dr. Cuenca, and she advised the lumpectomy because she had requested a "Oncu" test that determines how high a risk factor recurring cancer is in a person. Mine was low, 11% so I had a lumpectomy March 10th and started radiation treatments in April. I have take 32 of them and tomorrow June 25 is my last one.

I met with Dr. Cuenca last month and asked her, "Will I ever be cancer free?" She told me that I really needed to have some FAITH, that the doctors are doing everything they can to make sure that I am going to be. I am truly blessed though. I sit with people everyday at the cancer center and we share our stories. At first I was scared and apprehensive about going to treatment, but as I am approaching my "graduation" day, I realize how thankful I am that there are Cancer Centers to take care of people like me. I am a totally different person, I see things very differently now and I am working on that FAITH the doctor spoke with me about. My son and his father as well as my twin and my brother-in-law are my biggest support group, I would love to share my story to help encourage other women.