A month after my annual physical, I found a lump in my breast. I was initially diagnosed with stage 3 triple-negative breast cancer (a rare type that lacks receptors for estrogen, progesterone, and the HER2 protein, which makes certain treatments like hormone therapy ineffective). I was 29, so this diagnosis felt shocking—just totally out of left field. I was not worried it was cancer when I first found the lump; the thought didn’t even occur to me.
I had a cozy little life before that. I grew up in Belmont, North Carolina, only about an hour from where I live now. I graduated from college, got my first job, and met my husband, Andrew, here. We got a fluffy cat named Moo, and I happily taught elementary school for about 10 years. Then my life completely changed.
After that initial diagnosis I stopped working and underwent a year of chemotherapy, a lumpectomy surgery, and radiation. I made it through that first treatment cycle focused on my goal of getting back to regular life and leaving my diagnosis behind. Then, right after I’d finally gone back to work, I had a recurrence. I found out I had a brain tumor and liver metastasis, and that’s when I was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, also known as metastatic breast cancer (MBC).
In that moment everything changed—again. I had to go back into treatment. My hair had just grown back into a cute little pixie cut, but I had to restart chemo, so I lost my hair again. I had to leave my teaching job again. It was incredibly hard. I remember grasping for the first time that cancer treatment could define the rest of my life.
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