“This couldn’t be happening to me. I couldn’t breathe, and to top it off my husband was out of town on business. I tried calling him and he didn’t answer. ‘This can’t be how my story ends.’”
‘I am only 31. They recommended a radical hysterectomy. They wanted to remove everything.’: Through ‘last chance’ IVF procedure mom discovers uterine cancer, attributes fertility surgery to saving her life
‘Help me, mama. Pleeeease, help me!’ Covered in sweat, he escaped the doctors. That was it! I was DONE.’: Boy beats cancer 3 times, loses vision, ‘he wasn’t supposed to survive his first day’
“The doctor looked me square in the eye. ‘Brain tumor.’ WHAT?! I looked at my baby playing with Tonka trucks. ‘I’m sorry, but I think we both knew it.’ WHAT? Are you freaking kidding? No, I didn’t! I sat in the pre-op area signing consent forms. I wrote in large letters, ‘NO STUDENT OR RESIDENT IS TO TOUCH HIM.’ Never again was I going to just accept what a doctor said without question.”
‘It was not even on my radar that my lumpy boob could be a cancer boob. How naive I was.’: Mom in her 30s diagnosed with breast cancer, warns ‘Don’t be me. Don’t ignore it’
“I had a giant, pain-in-the-rear tumor growing for years. YEARS. I am smart and with it. I’m one of those moms who is always trying her darndest to make the very best decisions for her family. And yet, I missed a giant tumor. I had for sure felt it before. I was pregnant and nursing on and off for 8 years. My body was always changing, and I was keeping the small people alive. It was so easy to chalk it up to body changes and move on.”
‘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.”
‘What are the chances lightning strikes twice?’ Then I got the news. ‘Ashley…I have cancer, too.’: Twins battle breast cancer simultaneously, ‘we found strength in each other’
“The day after my biopsy, I received a phone call. ‘Wow, the results came fast. Must be good news!’ The nurse put the doctor on. ‘Hi, Danielle. I want you to know we found cancer…’ Suddenly, all of the air was sucked out of my body. I called my sister. ‘Man, you cursed me. I have it.’ I could hear my mom in the background saying, ‘Are you EFFING kidding me?!’ We were battling this together.”
‘I was diagnosed with cancer, 6 months pregnant, married, with a 10-month-old daughter. I was under attack.’: Mom refuses to abort child despite doctor’s advice, ‘It was up to me to make an impossible decision’
“After my first round of chemo, my husband left me. His family told me he ‘couldn’t stand by and watch the girl he loves, die.’ I filed for a divorce. After 2 more rounds of chemo with my daughter, she was born 6 weeks early. ‘I am leaving this hospital with or without your permission so I can spend Christmas at home with my two daughters.’”
‘I laughed out loud. Me? Cancer? I was 25. No way. My mom was going to pass out.’: 27-year-old in cancer remission urges it’s not ‘rainbows and roses,’ but she is ‘blessed to be alive today, that I can say for sure’
“‘I really think you should go to the ER,’ my best friend said as I winced in pain. For me to even consider the emergency room meant something was seriously wrong. ‘Kidney stones,’ I thought. A quick scan, morphine and some rest and I’d be on my way. I was wrong. I’ll never forget his name, Brian. The main nurse I had. ‘We need to do another scan, this time, one of your chest.’”
‘Are we still getting married?,’ she looked at me in tears. She wanted to protect me.’: Man loses wife to stage 4 cancer months after wedding, ‘I have a huge hole in my heart’
“We had already chosen our wedding date. We had booked our venue, sent out save-the-dates. The doctors encouraged us to move it up, fearing the worst. But we decided no matter what, we weren’t changing it. 3 weeks before, she lost her hair again. ‘I fell in love with you when you were bald,’ I told her. She was absolutely stunning walking down the aisle. I felt like the luckiest person in the world. Right before her 30th birthday, we decided to give up all treatment and enjoy the time we had left.”
‘No. It’s just a sinus infection.’ I demanded my husband get tested. A full-blown yelling match ensued. ‘OK, OK.’: Woman loses husband to Brain Cancer after ‘sinus infection’ misdiagnosis, ‘this is a never-ending healing journey’
“Ray, the epitome of health, awoke to a terrible migraine. I asked for a cat scan. ‘He is FINE,’ I was told. I knew in the depths of my soul something wasn’t right. 20 minutes later, the same doctor and 3 nurses rushed in. The door flew open so hard it bounced off the wall! The nurses ripped cords from walls, tossed his belongs on the stretcher. ‘Whoa, what’s going on?!’ The doctor, without even looking at us, said, ‘We found a mass. It’s the largest I’ve ever seen.’ He turned and left the room, never to be seen again.”
‘My son sat on the sidelines, on hospital floors, watching his sister deteriorate. HE suffered, silently.’: Mom praises son for being ‘unsung hero’ during little sister’s battle with Ewing’s Sacroma
“At 10, Gabriel was thrust into a world of hospitals, procedures, and more pain fathomable. He watched his sister get all the affection, attention, and gifts. He lay on hospital floors next to her, hardly able to sleep, then awoke for school in the early mornings. He watched her deteriorate, not being able to help his sissy, not expressing his feelings…keeping it all inside.”
