The Fight. It's all for them. All of It.

Around Christmas of 2023 I wasn't feeling right, sore, swollen, red. I visited my primary care Dr who misdiagnosed me with an infection, overlooked my family history and sent me on my way. I spent 3 days on the phone for hours, begging and pleading with every Dr I could to get me in for an ultrasound. I was finally connected with an amazingly experienced nurse practitioner (with ZERO bedside manner) who took one look at me, and with no hesitation said "Oh this is bad. We'll have to biopsy, but this definitely cancer". She did a biopsy on the spot. I cried in my car for an hour before I left that parking lot. First thoughts, I'm dead, my kids will lose their mother, it's over.

Fast forward to today, July 2025. After 6 months of chemotherapy, 3 surgeries, 2 hospital stays for neutropenic fever, 30 rounds of radiation, I'm still here..and thriving. Well..thriving meant something different before cancer. But I'm here, and thriving while I do the best I can.

My proudest accomplishment in all this is that I NEVER stopped taking care of my kids and being there for them. Even on the hardest, most physically challenging days, I got up out of bed, I attended my son's hockey games, I showed up for my daughters dance competitions. I didn't miss a beat for them. My driving force forward in this fight for continued survivorship is them. It's always been them.