Megan's Story

I was diagnosed on Tuesday February 14, 2006. I was 29 years old and a mother of two great kids. My children were 3 and half and almost one. I am a hairdresser and a nail technician. On the day that I was told I had breast cancer I had to go into work right after and do some clients. That was very hard but I have the best clients around. I got done with my clients and my husband and I went home and made a lot of phone calls and I had an appointment on Thursday with a Dr. at Huntsman Cancer Instatute. My husband and I went to the appointment and the following Friday I was having a lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy.

I have no family history of breast cancer but because of my age I decided on having a bilateral mastectomy. I was told I had a 40 percent chance of having cancer on the other side in the next 20 years and I didn't want to have to go through it twice. I have not had a reaccurance. I had the mastectomy the following Friday and was told that I had postive lymph nodes so they wanted me to do Chemotherapy and Radiation. I started Chemo 4 weeks later, and 4 days after my daughter turned one. The hardest part so far was that I couldn't lift my daughter. There were times when I couldn't get her into her crib and she would take a nap on the floor. I did 8 treatments every two weeks. I ended up with a port in my chest because they had a hard time getting my veins. I was also going to get Herceptin for a year after chemo and that was going to be administered the same way. They say that I did great with the chemo and I would take my nausa medicine and it seemed to help. My last four treatments would knock me out for a day or two because my bones would hurt so bad that I could barely lay in bed.

I started radiation 3 weeks after I was done with chemo and did that five days a week for 5 and half weeks. I got very burned in my armpit area. One day I went in and the techs even felt bad because of how it looked. I completed that and was on to the next thing. Surgery to get the expanders out and put in my implants. I had surgery the end of April 2007 and had to go another 6 weeks of no heavy lifting. At least this time my daughter was walking. I got the port out the end of July and have just had follow up appointments since. This process has made my husband and I much closer and we learned to communicate at lot more. I also learned that it is very hard for the caregiver. My husband wanted to fix me and he couldn't. My kids were very supportive and my son was always my cheerleader telling me I will be ok.

When I was diagnosed I never thought that I would die from this but I do think that we will be affected by it again somewhere. I want my kids to be able to look back and say "My mom did it and it will be ok." I have worked off and on throughout this process and my clients have told me about how I have affected them. I have some that can't believe what I went through and that I am happy and healthy now and it makes them think their problems aren't so bad. I have friends that said they would have given up and they were amazed and how up beat and positive I was. I do think that having my family around me helped me want to beat it. I have to be there for my kids, and husband.

I am taking Tamoxifen for the next five years. It does have some side effects but it isn't as bad as cancer coming back. I'm sure that there is so much more that I could tell you about the process and what I went through. I can tell you that I am very lucky to live here in Salt Lake and to have the great doctors I have had. They have all been wonderfull and I think of them as a friend. Cancer has changed my life in many ways but I also have grown and learned how strong of a person I can be. I have experienced a lot of things in my life that has made me grow and I can chalk this up as another one.