Baring it all in front of techs, male and female, I started thinking that I should get paid for this. After all, topless dancers in clubs got paid for being bare chested! The treatment actually took less time than it took me to drive to the clinic on the days of my treatments.
Oh, I have a breast that is gradually losing its burned thickened skin appearance, and softening up after 10 months from my last radiation treatment. Flash forward.. It's been over a year and I am cancer free.
My last mammogram came back abnormal but what showed on the film was scar tissue. That initial fear was just instantaneous, because I know, no matter what, I can get through it again...and again, if I have to.
I get to go in twice a year and get my boobs flattened to almost pancake level, but I'm alive. My hair came in curly this time as it was stick straight before. It's short where it was long before. But in time, it will grow, as I have, through this process. I thought cancer would define me. But I decided no.
I am not just a female with breasts. I'm a strong individual with a brain and creativity in the art of painting on ceramic tiles. With or without cancer, with or without breasts, that would still be who I am. I'm lucky.
Chemo exacerbated some aches and pains I'd had before but it's oh so nice to be here and be allowed to feel. I did it. You can too. Oh, and a word of advice...stick with your treatments. I wimped out. But looking back, I could have endured the other treatments I chose to fore-go. I had the most important support group I could have had through it all. I had, ME, MYSELF and I. And I conquered something that I never thought I could. Oh, the Power of One, we all have inside of us.
