“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.”
‘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’
‘I can’t go back there; I can’t lose my wife again,’ he told me. ‘I’m not sure I’d survive that.’ We were terrified. Terrified of who I was pregnant.’
“My doctor very clearly advised me I would need to be off my antidepressants if I wanted to get pregnant, so I came off them. The next several months were some of my darkest. My husband was taking care of a wife who, in his words, ‘had disappeared.'”
‘So you got diagnosed with cancer – What next?’
“This is an overwhelming process, one unlike you’ve ever experienced. You are about to embark on the fight of your life, FOR your life.”
‘Parents, I say this with every ounce of sincerity – YOU know your children better than anyone else in this world.’: Little girl diagnosed with Kawasaki disease
“The requests I made for more extensive testing went ignored. We were discharged with the diagnosis, ‘virus, probably, she’ll be fine.’ He was wrong.”
