Hello! I'm Emily Mclevain, I was diagnosed with stage 3 grade 2 breast cancer. I have 6 kids to care for alongside my husband.
And this is my story
“I remember it like it was yesterday – it was a Saturday afternoon in July, and I was in the shower praying to God for my results to benign – I did not want the news that my lump was malignant (which no one does). When I got out, my Dr who performed the biopsy had called to confirm that it was in fact malignant. I was absolutely devastated. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. He didn’t have all the tests results back at that time, so he couldn’t provide me with all the answers I needed and wanted. The waiting game began…the anticipation and all the unanswered questions just continue to circle in your head.
July 11th, 2024, it was all confirmed – I was diagnosed with stage 3 grade 2 invasive ductal carcinoma ER+PR+/HER2- breast cancer. Getting this news was extremely heartbreaking and hard for me to face. You never think “cancer” would happen to you. I've dealt with a lot of trauma and hardships in my life, so I’ve learned to face things on my own and tend to close myself off. Sometimes, I’ve been blessed to have some close friends by my side. Since my diagnosis, I felt stuck in fear, sadness, anxiety, lost and alone. I have a loving, supportive husband and 6 kids that rely on me at home. The thought of them not having their mom to continue to see them grow up, go to dances/prom, graduate from school and become adults – it’s devastating and total overload on my thoughts/emotions. My husband and I don’t have a lot of family that support us. With the way the current economy is and now fighting cancer, it’s been financially hard on us. No matter what – we keep trying and fighting every day. My husband has been a rock through all of this holding down his job, and I try to clean homes on my good days when I have the energy and feel well enough.
The next week I met with my oncologist, and he walked me through my treatment plan. I had so many fears and doubts going into this. #1 – The confirmation of cancer, #2 – Having to go through chemo and that my hair will fall out, #3 – As a woman, being told I was going to lose my breasts. About a week or two later, I started my chemo treatments. I had 4 bi-weekly rounds of doxorubicin, which is a chemotherapy drug (also goes by Adriamycin), it’s nicknamed "red devil" because of its bright red color and unpleasant side effects. I slept for days straight, sleeping so much I didn't get to spend quality time with my children. I felt like I was sleeping my life away in my room, all alone, so I decided to bring my bed into the living room. After that treatment, I start Taxol – this is easier on me in many ways, but also very different as it came with other side effects. It's caused me to have neuropathy, and I will have that for the rest of my life. It also caused me to have nail problems, fatigue and some nausea. Even though it was gentler on me than the first one, it was still difficult at times. I received a round of Taxol every week for 12 weeks. I completed this treatment on January 2, 2025.
While I was receiving the Taxol, I met with a genetics counselor and did further testing. I found out that I had the BRCA+ Gene and that changed everything. BRCA+ means it's highly possibly for the chances of cancer to return. The gene was passed down to me by a family member, and at that time, I had no idea what family member it was. I then asked my dad to get tested to see if he carried the gene. He got tested, and his results came back BRCA+. That gene carries the chances of prostate cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer and very low on melanoma and pancreatitis cancer. When one of the parents carries that gene, the children have a 50% chance of that gene being passed down to them. Devastatingly that means that my children also have 50% chance of having that gene. We had also found out in going through all this, that my dad's father had 6 sisters and that 5 of them died from the BRCA gene. If we had known that our family had carried this gene through generations, then when I turned 18, I would have gotten tested. Getting tested early could’ve prevented my stage 3 breast cancer and spreading to my lymph nodes in my left axillary.
On February 20, 2025, I had a double mastectomy, plus reconstruction. I still have my expanders in for the time being. August 4th I will be having a big surgery that will take 12 hours. I’ve elected to go with the DIEP flap surgery vs the implants. When I had my double mastectomy done, they sent off labs to see if there was any cancer left and there wasn't any! Chemo had got it all. People ask me if I'm remission, but we don't use that word. The Drs like to say that we are doing everything to prevent it from coming back. After my DIEP flap surgery, I will then have a hysterectomy and have my ovaries removed. My cancer is based off the hormone estrogen, so because of that and the fact that my cancer is based off the hormone estrogen, and that i carry the BRCA gene, I must have my ovaries removed. I’m currently on a pill that's an estrogen blocker – Tamoxifen – and I will be on that for 5 years. I just started taking this almost 2 months ago, and it will help prevent cancer coming back.
People don’t often discuss what all cancer can do to you financially, but unfortunately, I can. While going through all my treatments, surgery and more to come in August and moving forward. I haven’t been able to work as normal. My husband has been the only one able to bring in consistent income and has continued to support us the best he can. He works his day job and tries to do yard work or odd jobs on his days off. Nowadays, as most of you know, it takes two incomes to be able to survive. Currently, we’re behind on bills, and the transmission has gone out on our truck. Our current bills consist of our mortgage, OMU (electric), Atmos (gas), Eagle Finance, child support, phone bill, gas, car/life insurance, braces for my oldest son, things needed for our home, and of course food. I don't know how we've made it this far, except with prayer and the grace of God. All glory be to God because I honestly don't know where I'd be if I didn't have a relationship with him. He has provided me with a sense of peace during all of this. I just pray that we’re able to find a way to keep providing for our family during this difficult time, get our transmission fixed/replaced for our truck and get our bills caught up.”
Thank you for taking the time to read all of this if you made it this far. God bless