“They wheeled me back. With a smile on a face I yelled, ‘See you soon!’ The next thing I remember, I opened my eyes and was completely alone in a very dark room. With tears in his eyes he told me, ‘We found a large tumor.’ I was in a nightmare. Oh, no. It can’t be. Brave face Amanda, brave face. I had TWO types of cancer. Absolutely no way. ‘There is some bad news, however.’ There was more bad news? It was too much.”
‘We found a large tumor.’ No way I had TWO types of cancer. I saw the look on his face. I knew.’: Woman defeats odds of beating colon and thyroid cancer, ‘I have tears in my eyes. I survived.’
‘Mommy, I’ve been scared to say this, but I have a big bump on my chest.’ I lifted her shirt. Sheer horror!’: 8-year-old girl diagnosed with breast cancer after both parents beat cancer, ‘we are a family of fighters’
“There it was. A hard lump directly under her right nipple. ‘Honey? Please come here a minute.’ My husband and I exchanged a look of fear. It was so dark you could see it through her skin. We just hugged and bawled. ‘Not our baby girl,’ we both kept saying. ‘Mommy, what’s wrong?’ Her sweet face changed.”
‘Never in a million years did I think I’d get cancer, much less BREAST cancer.’: Male breast cancer survivor urges men to ‘get checked out’ if they notice ‘something out of the ordinary’
“One night after I got home from the gym, I felt a tiny lump the size of a dime on my right nipple. Like most men, I assumed it was a cyst or ingrown hair. My wife pushed to get it checked out. Lo and behold, I was drinking my morning cup of coffee, still in my PJs and trying to wake up, when I got a call. ‘Michael, our biopsy results came back and you have cancer.’ I went to work that day looking like someone walked over my grave.”
‘I looked out at my husband and 4 kids swimming. They looked so happy and free. But I was in prison, writing my goodbye letters.’: Woman shocked by breast cancer diagnosis after getting second opinion, urges us to ‘trust our intuition’
“On the day of the results appointment, I walked into the office sipping iced coffee. I even took a few selfies in the exam room while I wore the breast-cloak. I was gearing up to announce my relief of a positive result on social media to my followers. The doctor came in, iPad in hand. She settled on a wheeled stool and cleared her throat. Then she said, ‘I never want to tell patients this, but it’s breast cancer.’ Just like in the movies, I went into a fog.”
‘A doctor said to ‘go lose some weight’ and the symptoms would go away. I didn’t like that answer.’: New mom diagnosed with Bone Marrow Cancer after warning signs misdiagnosed as obesity
“I had unusually high protein in my urine. I was familiar with the old ‘lose weight’ diagnosis. She was almost, like, talking past me. Not present. Asked me questions, literally responded as though I said the exact opposite of what I’d said. I decided to get a second opinion. So, here we are now. I have cancer. I have a 5-month-old baby. I’m not even caught up on Big Little Lies. Definitely not what I expected.”
‘How blessed are we that I got pregnant?! I would’ve never known I had a tumor if it weren’t for the baby. I felt fine.’: Mom-to-be learns of cancer diagnosis thanks to surprise pregnancy
“This photo was taken 5 minutes before the doctor told me my tumor was cancerous. At our first ultrasound, my doctor found ‘a baseball size tumor’ on my ovary. She thought it was benign, but couldn’t tell me without biopsy. They don’t do that to pregnant women. ‘So I have to wait 9 months to find out if this thing is benign or cancerous?!’ My mind was racing. This little miracle inside me saved me from letting cancer go further.”
‘My doctor wouldn’t look at me. I stood there, crying like a baby. ‘I have it.’ My husband said the same. ‘What will happen to the kids?!’ My mind went into full blown panic.’
“I snapped. He thought I was going to rough him up. I wanted to. Then, I did the one thing you should never, ever do. For two weeks straight, I was afraid I wouldn’t wake up. I could tell he was scared.”
‘I was asked if I had any questions. All I could manage to mumble was, ‘Will I lose my hair?’ I was 16. I was in high school. I was a girl. I couldn’t be bald. I just couldn’t.’
“Three words. That’s all it took. Three simple words. Everything was happening too fast. I just sat there, staring at the wall, trying not cry. When homecoming came, I had this beautiful red dress. I put on heels, makeup. Then I looked in the mirror and crumbled to the ground. What was I thinking? I looked ridiculous. I looked sick.”
‘I sat in the waiting room, eager for my big sigh of relief. It didn’t come. Like many of us, I thought I had all the time in the world. Then, I received the blow most of us fear. My heart sank.’
“I didn’t have the symptoms or risk factors. Everyone said, ‘It’s probably nothing.’ I walked up to my husband, tears in my eyes, in total shock. I worried I’d never get to see my children grow up. The fear of the unknown started taking over.”
‘I was 13 hours away with $1.32 in my account. Tears in my eyes, I gently opened the door. There was a look of shock on her face. ‘How did you get here?!’
“I wrote, ‘My mom is dying in hospice care and I feel guilty every day I’m not there sitting by her side.’ I awoke to something so unexpected. ‘Alex! Oh my god, Alex!’”
