The Start of My Journey

I always knew that breast cancer would be in my future. My mother died of breast/bone cancer in February 1987. Since I was built so much like her I felt that I would be the one! I lived with the annual fear of "is this the year?" since I was 30 years old. Somehow I never thought beyond that fear.

I was diagnosed with fibrocystic breast disease when I was 32 years old. I went to the Susan Komen Center for Breast Cancer when I was 40 for a holistic evaluation. At that time my risk for breast cancer was thought to be about the same as any woman, despite my mother having died from the disease.

I always thought the left breast would be the one to develop cancer. The Butt sisters lived in that breast. They were 3 BIG cysts that would fill up with fluid, lock their butts together and just have a good old time. They had to be drained several times and the only way the middle sister could get rid of her fluid was for them to insert the needle through the outside sisters to get to her. I kept many a technician in stitches talking about the Butt Sisters.

But while I was entertaining the technicians the right breast was slowly cultivating THE ONE! The strange thing is that right after my mother died I found a very small lump in this location but the doctor could not feel it nor did any future testing reveal it until 2007. Could my mother have caused THE ONE to rear its head for a warning?

My life as a full time, working mother/wife kept me busy. By 2002 I had received several promotions and was now traveling between Washington, DC and Gulfport, MS working for the Armed Forces Retirement Home. My life was hectic but it was just the CALM before the STORM.

My husband was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in 2004. He had his prostate removed at the age of 48 but we were so blessed that it was contained and they were able to get it all. We felt that surely 2005 would be a better year for us. But again, it was just the CALM before the STORM.

Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29, 2005. I was locked in the Gulfport facility during the storm with my husband, children, dogs and in-laws hunkered down at our residence. This one 24 hour period forever changed my life! The facility was 24 feet above sea-level and very, very well built. We were considered to be such a secure location with ability to generate electricity by generator and water from a well, that Jim Cantore and the Weather Channel stayed with us during the storm. Needless to say, Hurricane Katrina thought differently and by 8 AM that morning we were walking in 2 inches of water. The Gulf of Mexico was beating at our feet! The rising surge caused the generators to flood out so there we were....120 staff/family and 450 residents in total darkness. Because it was breakfast time most every one was on the first floor when the power went out and the generators flooded so we had to evacuate everyone UP via stair wells.

HE revealed himself to me during the height of the storm and I suddenly felt so peaceful. I knew we would survive. By the next night I was on one of 9 buses filled with elderly residents and 2 staff members per bus...heading to where my NEW life would begin and to the time that THE ONE would announce its appearance!