Welcome to our life. Or more likely, welcome back. Thank you for being on our journey with us. Financially speaking, I've gotten good at treading water. Except I feel like we're about to drown. I'm not able to work. State disability funds are gone. I need back surgery. I'm in pain all the time.

I'm surviving with breast cancer. I was diagnosed with a stage one ductal carcinoma in situ in May 2022. A fast growing triple negative. My tumor responded well to chemotherapy. My body did not. It was weak and needed rest. I didn't listen to my body. Cultural norm says it's okay for women to push their bodies to exhaustion. I thought I was "staying strong." "Fighting." Doing single mom stuff.

October to January, my body spoke a little louder. I cracked a rib (twice), had a major implant infection, fractured my wrist and needed three surgeries. Major life events were compiling at an alarming rate. The psychological detriment of experiencing multiple traumatic events was constantly humming in the back of my mind.

The tumor turned out to be triple negative and ER+. "Weird" - per my oncologist. In addition to oral chemo, estrogen suppression was necessary. It's February and my new focus is managing the side effects of treatment. Side effects hit hard in April. We moved in April. Moving is hard. Chemo is harder. Don't do both together.

Anyways, money ran out in May and I had to go off treatment to go back to work. Side effects were too intense to work with. Then my back became too painful to work with. I've been out of work since September.