I was born May 2, 1979 in San Diego, California.  One day when my mother was pulling me out of the bath tub she noticed a lump on my belly.  She scheduled a Doctors appointment right away to have it checked out.  The Doctor's informed mom that I had stage 4 neuroblastoma (cancer) of the liver.  They informed my parents I would not survive past my first birthday.   My parents refused to believe this.  They began to pray, along with about 100 other people. Miraculously, by age 5 my cancer had dissapeared.  I now go every seven years to have it checked.  Because of everything I went through, I will never be able to have children.

 

I had been cancer free from that time until 2013.  I started to feel a tickle in my throat that would not go away.  I kept brushing it off thinking it was probabaly nothing.  My husband finally got tired of hearing me clear my throat and told me I needed to go have it checked out.  The Doctor I saw informed me that if it had been there that long and never hurt it was probably cancer.  We were shocked at what he had told us but still thought he couldn't be right.  

It wasn't until I heard the dreaded "cysts" words that I started to get scared.  They scheduled me for biopsies right away.  The biposie results came back back positive for cancer.  I was then scheduled to have surgery to remove half of my thyroid in 2013.  The surgeon said he would remove half of my thyroid and biopsy it to be certain they got it all.  

I felt pretty confident that everything would be okay from what all the doctors had told me. When I woke up from surgery I was informed they would have to go back in and remove the other half in a couple weeks.  

I'm a pretty positive person, and I thought "okay, I can handle this."

I scheduled my next surgery and went in for it to find that my vocal cord had been damaged from the first surgey.  The Doctor said we could not risk surgery until it was healed.  

I went through a couple months of vocal cord therapy and a new doctor.

I was finally ready to have my surgery and to be done with this whole "cancer" word.

My surgery and the healing process went well.  After I had gone to have my levels checked I received a call saying that the Doctor needed to see me in her office to talk about my bloodwork.  I went in, scared to death, to find out what was going on.  They told me my bloodwork showed that I still have thyroid cancer somewhere in my body but they aren't sure where.  They wanted me to go through a radioactive iodine treatment.  This would make the cancer glow on a body scan.  I agreed, and went through the treatment.  The scan showed cancer in the area where my thyroid was as well as a lymph node above that.  They told me the radioactive iodine would kill the cancer and I would go back for more bloodwork in 6 months.  Six months later, my bloodwork still showed cancer.  I went back in for another radioactive iodine treatment and waited for the results.  

I went into the Doctor's office thinking "surely they got it all this time."  That's when the Doctor looked at me and said, "I'm not going to sugar coat this...it's bad."

My heart dropped to the floor.  All I could think is "I'm going to die!"  I was right in the middle of adopting a beautiful baby boy that I would never be able to see grow up, or enjoy watching him play sports.  I wouldn't get to see my family, see the flowers                                           bloom, or birds flying.  I was going to die....

The Doctor proceeded to tell me the cancer had changed and

was no longer accepting treatment.  They also weren't sure

where the cancer was.  I was then scheduled for an ultrasound

to see if they could find anything.  They found three more cysts

in my neck and chest that were cancerous.  I was then

scheduled for a neck dissection.  This consisted of the Surgeons

removing ALL of my lymph nodes.  This was a very serious

surgery.  I was in the Operating Room for five hours.  My

Surgeon said he was confident he removed everything he could

but I would need radiation because the cancer had broken out of

one of my lymph nodes.  I am currently undergoing radiation

treatment five times a week.