I am not an author by trade, actually, my purpose is to educate and entertain children. There are people that are truly authors and they live by their pen. While I always thought I would write my life story one day, I never perceived that I would write books for Children. The twists in your life, really determine some of the journeys that you take. My forks in the road are Sarcoidosis and Breast Cancer.
Sarcoidosis is an auto-immune disease that can attack a person’s joints, eyes,
lungs, heart, and other organs. It does not have a cure and has taken the lives of two very famous people most of us know. One is comedian Bernie Mack and the others NFL Football Star Reggie White. The Sarcoidosis I have attacks my lungs and joints. I was diagnosed with this life twist in 2011. Not being able to breathe gives
you, perspective and someone telling you that you have a terminal disease can be mentally devastating if you don’t have strong faith. It (The Sarcoidosis) stopped
me momentarily but did not keep me down. I went back to working 60 to 70 hours
per week and to what most people would consider a normal life.
My Mom became deathly ill in 2013, a bowel prolapse that became gangrene. I
was working and going back and forth to help with her care. I had a serious accident that year. I fell asleep behind the wheel of the van I was driving, but I made it through again. My Mom though made the transition on my brother’s birthday in November of that year. She told me that she was ready, so my mind was at ease and her death did not hurt me as much as I thought it would.
I found a lump in my right breast in May of 2014. I was not alarmed, because I had a scare before, due to a lump I found in my left breast in 1988. The surgeon removed 27 small benign cysts then. So, in my mind, I thought it was just a cyst, but I kept my eye on it. This thing that I thought was a benign cyst grew at an alarming rate from the size of a pea to the size of an egg in about 8 to 10 weeks. I
went to see my doctor and we scheduled a mammogram. After the results came back, I went to have the lump biopsied. The surgeon told me, I regret to inform you, it is Breast Cancer. I was in shock, so much so, that I didn’t even ask him what stage or grade. I just thanked him for the information and continued traveling to work. This new life twist, will I live or die? For a moment I died mentally. I woke up and
started researching Breast Cancer. There are forty different types of BreastCancer. Wow! My oncologist, a wonderful doctor wanted me to start chemotherapy after the bi-lateral mastectomy surgery. She just didn’t know that I had is not planned to take the Chemo. She told me; I give you five years to live without it. (Chemotherapy) Here is the kicker, the pathology report was inconclusive. I was thought to have triple-positive breast cancer.When I read the
report, it said in small print at the bottom, this test is inconclusive. I went to my family Doctor and we read the report together and she confirmed that the report stated that that they did not know what kind of breast cancer I had. Meanwhile, my oncologist still was pressing Chemotherapy, again I said no, I wanted to have the
Oncotype DX test to determine what type of breast cancer was in that tumor. She told me to take could take 6 to 8 weeks. I told her; we will just have to wait. (She just
didn’t get it; I really had decided I wasn’t going to take the Chemo.)
After the Oncotype DX testing, the results were; that I have ER+ Breast Cancer. This is an Estrogen receptive cancer. Again, she was insisting on Chemotherapy. She didn’t know that I had been researching, about all the different types of breast
cancer and the medications used to treat them. I declined the treatment; my family doctor was not happy with my decision.
