How I Kept My Head When I Lost My Breasts: A Breast Cancer Survivors Journey

By Sandra Fuentes

Sandra Fuentes was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of Thirty-Two. How would this diagnosis play out for a wife and mother of three as well as a business owner? Sandra had some major life changes to undergo and a new "normal" to get used to.
How I Kept My Head When I Lost My Breasts shows how Sandra made it though this journey by sheer determination and her amazing attitude. This book is a great resource both for those going through cancer treatment and for their caregivers.Sandra shows us how to turn a life changing situation into something life enriching. Her energy and truthfulness of her writing are bound to help anyone going through such struggles in their own life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9780987799012

Sandra Fuentes

I've always enjoyed story telling since I was young. Now that I've been traveling with my husband, enjoying the beauty of the different states I've finally found time to make my stories into books. We have 7 wonderful children who are all grown and out of the house. We are also proud grandparents to 10 rambunctious and loving grandkids, who are inspiration for my books. I am originally born and raised in McAllen, Texas. I've lived in Oklahoma most of my adulthood and have been blessed to travel to many states and countries. I have 6 brothers and sisters and my mother who still resides in McAllen, Texas. ank you for your interest in my book. Hope you enjoy this one and remember there are many more adventurous Little Robert tales to come.

Book preview

Magazine

Chapter 1

Where to Start . . . ?

Well, maybe from the beginning; I guess that's a good place to start. We'll begin by singing DO RE ME—uh, oh wait, never mind; this is supposed to be serious stuff. *smile*

Well, no one wakes up one day and says, Cancer sounds like fun or Let's go catch some cancer today. In fact, most people never think it will happen to them—especially if they happen to be a thirty-two-year-old mother of three with a rocking home-based business, on top of her game, life is great, and your thirties are when the fun really starts—right? Well, the fun did start. Yup, April 17, 2007, at approximately eleven in the morning, my life changed forever. Those words, Your results came back; you have cancer, still ring in my head. At that moment, the only thought that came to my mind was: This is impossible; I'm leaving for Vegas in a month for a work retreat. I don't have time for this. Unfortunately, cancer didn't care that day. Or the next day. Or any other day, for that matter.

That was it: That lump I had been feeling for the previous eighteen months was not, in fact, a plugged milk duct from nursing, as all the medical people I had seen had told me it most likely was. It was a tumour trying to kill me. My own body was turning on itself. Are you kidding me? No, in fact . . . this was getting serious.

I noticed my lump about a week before I gave birth to our third child. We lovingly refer to her as our birth control baby *smile*—not only was she conceived while I was on birth control, but she serves as a great object lesson to my teenagers on the importance of waiting to have sex until they are married! I assumed the lump was just lumpy breast tissue from being pregnant.

The day after she was born, I developed mastitis in the area of the lump—while I was still in the hospital. This is very unusual, but no one really thought much of it; and who was I to argue the point: after all, they were the medical professionals.

There were difficulties breastfeeding on that breast. Although we were seen by countless lactation consultants and talked to various people, no one was able to tell me exactly why she did not want to nurse on that side. She was jaundiced; perhaps she was just lazy, or perhaps she hated nursing on that side. Eventually things resolved themselves, and she started nursing like a trooper, but never as much on that one side.

When I hear stories about dogs sniffing out cancer, I can't help thinking my baby, the cancer sniffer, could detect my cancer before anyone else. She was so in tune with me that she KNEW something was not right, not right at all, but who really takes advice from a baby? Especially medical advice.

The lump started to grow. Oh, I mentioned it at every doctor appointment, at every well-baby checkup; in fact, I mentioned it every time I saw anyone.

You know the answer I got? HMMMM, I have never seen anything like that; maybe it's just a plugged milk duct. Sometimes they stay lumpy till you've finished nursing.

Who was I to think otherwise? Who in her right mind suspects breast cancer when she is thirty-two, let alone nursing a newborn baby?

I really should have—you see, breast cancer is not new to me. My own mother passed away in 2002 after a ten-year battle with the Beast known as breast cancer. She was diagnosed at a young age as well, at thirty-four. I found out the day I graduated from high school that she had breast cancer.

At the time, I had no idea what all of this meant. I was a naive seventeen-year-old who had no idea what cancer really was. I only knew what I saw on TV and in movies, which usually involved someone dying in a hospital. This was to be a learning experience for my whole family.

I believe I have a unique perspective into the world of breast cancer, not only because I have lived through it myself, but I have also been a caretaker for my mother when she was sick, and I have seen other family members suffer from the same disease. Both of my mother's sisters have battled breast cancer.

Soon after one of my mom's sisters was diagnosed with breast cancer, she had genetic testing done for the BRCA1 gene mutation. It turned out that she had the mutation. I decided to undergo the testing as well. It was a simple blood test. At the time, I had no idea how that simple blood test would change the course of my life or how the knowledge I gained from it would change how I dealt with my own later cancer diagnosis.

And yes, you guessed it. I am BRCA1 positive. BRCA1 is a gene mutation that puts one at a higher risk for breast and ovarian cancers.

And thus began my journey into the world of breast cancer. My goal in this book is to help other young women who have to walk this journey realize that they can survive this. I want them to know that they are not alone on their journey; I will be here to help them along the way.

Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path, and you will find you have crossed over the mountain.

Unknown

I have crossed over that mountain.

Chapter 2

Finally, Getting My Voice Heard

I was in the shower one day shaving my underarms (hey, we all have 'em, right?) and I felt another lump. I just assumed it was another plugged milk duct, 'cause those do stretch to who knows where when your breasts are full.

Two days later I went to the doctor, showed it to him,