One thousand women under the age of 30 are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in America, according to a 2000 study by the American Cancer Society.  In 2006, at the age of 27, I became one of those women.  I was diagnosed with non-invasive breast cancer (called ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS) and I had a bilateral mastectomy.

Last month, April of 2007, during a surgery to put in saline implants, my plastic surgeon found a lump that he sent off to the pathology lab.  It came back positive for invasive cancer.  I had a second surgery a week later to take out all of the cancerous tissue.  Then I had CAT scans, bone scans, a heart scan, blood work, and I had a port placed (a port is a long catheter inserted into a vein under the collar bone).  I started chemo on May 16th…I’ll have four months of chemo and six weeks of radiation, followed by five years of a drug called Tamoxifen to try to prevent the cancer from coming back.

 I was really sick (nausea/vomiting) for a few days after my first chemo treatment.  I’m hoping it goes better this time around.  I used to have long blonde hair, but I got it cut a few weeks ago and donated to Locks of Love.  Now I have a short pixie cut that I’m still getting used to.   It doesn’t feel like me — my hair has never been this short — but it’s going to fall out within the week anyway, so what does it matter?