Lisa Martin is a Breast Cancer Warrior! She has faced the surprising diagnosis, subsequent surgery and now the recovery all with grace and a positive spirit!



The bills are piling up as a few setbacks have made it impossible for Lisa to return to work as originally planned.

Lisa needs our help - please support our friend!

Here's her story:

On Monday, January 5th 2015 I went in for my annual routine physical with my regular Dr. She did the full exam and then when she got to my breasts said she felt something small but nothing she was too concerned about as it was soft and moveable. Things that are not normally characteristic with breast cancer. She suggested I get a mammogram sooner than later so that Friday, January 9th 2015 I went in for a routine mammogram thinking nothing of it. My doctor called me late that Friday afternoon asking me "where are you" that is never good. I told her I was home and the kids were not with me. She said the mammogram came back inconclusive and she wanted me to have an ultra sound that following Monday. All weekend I tried to stay positive but in my heart I just knew something was wrong. On Monday I went for the ultra sound and the Dr of Radiology came in as well. She said the spot was not there on my last mammogram the previous year and it was irregularly shaped and she wanted to biopsy it right then and there. I asked a lot of questions. The first and foremost being "am I going to die? " She said "no, you are saving your life as we are catching this early" So without full confirmation, I still knew inside that I had breast cancer.

That night after the biopsy, I had to ice my breast every hour so there was no way to avoid telling my kids Natalie 12 and Tyler 14 what was going on. I told them simply that the Dr found a lump in mommy's breast. They both asked if I had cancer, my daughter burst into tears. I said I did not know and would know the next day.

My DR called the following afternoon just as I was getting ready to leave for my son's basketball playoff game. She told me it was cancer and the next step was to see a surgeon. From then on it became sort of a blur. The very next day I was sitting in my surgeons office meeting with her nurse where she told me what type of cancer I had. Invasive Ductile Carcinoma and handed me all kinds of reading material as in the coming weeks I had to make a decision on the type of surgery I was going to have. The next day I met with my surgeon and plastic surgeon. It was all just such a blur. The next Monday I had a routine MRI breast scan. That scan showed another tumor in my same right breast. I had to go for another ultra sound but they could not capture the tumor to biopsy so two days later I had to have a very painful MRI guided biopsy. The results of that biopsy showed the second tumor was benign for the time being but had characteristics of cancer as well.

While I started combing over information, the dr's were pushing surgery in 3-4 weeks. So I little time really to make a life altering decision. Was I going to have a lumpectomy that would then require 7 weeks of radiation or was I going to have a mastectomy with immediate reconstruction. I chose to have the mastectomy with immediate reconstruction as I did not want to have to worry every time I had a mammogram plus I just had this feeling it really was the right thing for me.

On February 12th, I had a bi-lateral mastectomy with immediate reconstruction, the recovery from which is usually 6-8 weeks or longer. I went on disability the day of the surgery and anticipated being back to consulting in early April. Not to be the case as the week of March 16th, I got a severe cellulitis infection and I am now on disability until the middle of June and perhaps until mid July. Disability while great to have, pays little from my normal income and I am stressed out on a daily basis about finances and the incoming medical bills and also being a single parent.

I am so close to my kids, they are the absolute loves of my life. They are coping so well with this, helping around the house, keeping me company, making me laugh, but they too are scared.

They say breast cancer is a journey. I am at the beginning of mine and I am scared on a daily basis but I know in order to get back to my fighting self I need to HEAL and I am so grateful for the love that is surrounding me as I go through this each and every day.