As many of you know I've recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. I found a lump in my left breast in March when I was changing my bathing suit. I went right away to the doctor and got an ultrasound. At first they said they couldn't say it was benign and with my family history I already knew. But we waited 3 months to watch how it grew. When I returned for my 3 month follow up ultrasound, immediately the doctors and nurses came in and said they feared it was a phyllodus tumor, which is fast spreading and aggressive. From there I went right for a biopsy and not even 24 hours later they were calling me, "you have cancer". As of right now I caught it early and As far as they can see its stage 1, Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. Having 3 children makes that word even scarier. I met with my cancer team July 18th, 2025 and they confirmed it is growing and is spreading, fast. The game plan is doing a double mastectomy right away, removing both breast's and because my tissue is so dense they cant fully see if it has spread to the lymph nodes or not, from what they can see it hasn't yet but they have to test the lymph nodes when they go in and remove the breast's and if they are cancer positive, then it will be Stage 2, then we have to follow the surgery with radiation. Even with a double mastectomy there's a very high risk of it returning in another area or organ so I will have to take a pill every day for the next 5 years to try to help with minimizing the chances of it returning in the first 5. There's always a chance it can spread or return. As scary as cancer sounds and experiencing all of this with my children and knowing theyre going to be experiencing cancer for the first time the scariest part of all of this to me is being off of work. I was just off of work to get my birth control removed and have my tube's tied, all tied into this whole cancer thing but I was off for 5 weeks and it was nothing but a financial stressor and used all my of PTO in the first week so i had and still have no paid time off. All I keep thinking is the school years coming up, which means football season which means cheerleading competitions and traveling to those and football games on top of all of the appointments and all of this right before the holidays, I'll be off until right before the holidays, hopefully not through them! I am going through Cedar Crest in Allentown and they say I'm in really great hands there but it's also 2 hours away each way. Every appointment, biopsy, MRI, everything is 2 hours away. That's a lot of gas and wear on my vehicle..last time I was off all of my money literally went into my vehicle! Also, the medical bills..because obviously I work at Geisinger Shamokin Hospital my copays and bills and everything are more than they normally would be since I'm not going through Geisinger..But I refuse to wait until next year for an appointment..this is my life we're talking about! It's a lot..a lot to process..a lot that weighs on your mind after you hear the word CANCER. But the world doesn't stop moving when you get cancer. Im a hard worker, working 2 jobs when I have to and sleeping 2 hours a day and pulling 12.5 hour shifts again the next night. Ill do anything I have to to make sure my kids have what they need and to make sure we are OK. This was never in the cards..I was trying to work through all of this but I have to face reality and reality is ..I cant. I have to focus on myself this once and allow my body to heal, plus work won't let me back until I'm cleared by my cancer team, I tried LOL. I'm never one to ask for a handout and it hurts my pride even doing so, but like I said I have to face reality this time and I saw what being off last time was like. If you can find it in your hearts to help myself, my children and my family during this time, we would be forever grateful. And if you cant even a positive thought or prayer is just as good!! Please keep me and my family in your thoughts, I have faith we will get through this and it can be a long memory of the past one day and this monster will be gone and never return! Thank you! I meet with the reconstructive surgeon July 28th and that day we will set an official surgery date, I will keep everyone posted. ❤️