Shelia D

Tell us about your survivor journey.
I was diagnosed on May 16, 2018. When I was told I couldn’t breathe. I was in shock. When I went into the waiting room, my husband was sitting out there and he noticed that something was wrong. He asked me I told him they just told me I had cancer. I started crying and told me not to worry that I would be okay. A few weeks later after taking different tests I was stage 3B. The odds was against me due to I was over 50, women of color, first in my family to have breast cancer and I hadn’t been thru menopause, plus I was HER2+. The doctor told me women of color usually get breast cancer before age 45.

My team of doctors decided to do chemo first to make the tumor shrink. After six rounds of chemo I had surgery on November 29, 2018. I was in surgery for six hours due to tumor implanted into my chest wall. I did 33 rounds of radiations. I completed my Herceptin treatments on July 3, 2019. I’m now cancer free thanks be to God!

What has been the biggest source of support through your journey?
My family and friends has been my support through out my journey. They didn’t let me go to no treatments alone. They made sure that I ate (because some days you didn’t want to eat).

What are some lessons you have learned throughout your survivor journey?
Stay postive. Stay away from negative things, people I don’t care if they your family or friends. Live life to the fullest.

Do you have any advice for a newly diagnosed survivor? What would that advice be and why?
Stay postive. Go to all doctor’s appointments whether you feel like it or not. It’s okay to cry, but don’t let it bring you down. Allow yourself one day per treatment to be sick. After that move around and live life. Most important to me was to keep God first. He saw me thru and here to tell my story how I survived.

In the space below, feel free to add any additional information like extra stories, lessons to live by, meaningful life quotes, advice or unique factors that contribute to your survivor journey.
During this journey they people you expect to be there for you is not, and they person you don’t expect will be there for you.

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