National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc.

Hi my name is Jean


I am 44 years old, one morning in October 2006 I woke up placed my hand across my chest and felt a lump on my breast. My mother died in October 1995 of breast cancer so I checked my breast regularly. It was 1 week before my period so I thought that was the reason for the change in my breast. My period came on and went off and the lump was still there, so I called my doctor.

I went in for a visit with my doctor he checked the lump a said it felt like a cyst because it wasn't hard, it was long and soft, but he made an appointment for me to have a mammogram in November 2006. The lump did not show up on the mammogram so I had to have a ultrasound. The day of the ultrsound the doctor at the hospital looked at the pictures and told me it was only a cyst and to have another ultrasound the following year.

I went back to my primary doctor and he said he wanted it check again in March 2007, not November 2007. In February 2007 it started to hurt. I am a fitness trainer and I teach a strength and tone class three times a week using light weights so I didn't know if that was the reason my breast was hurting. My doctor had me to go for a biopsy, and yes it was cancer. I could not believe the doctor at the hospital had miss dignosed it, what if I had waited unil November to be checked again? I was dignosed in February 2007, had a port put in the same month, and started my chemo treatments March 5, 2007.

Since the ultrasound in November 2006 until February 2007 the tumor had grown, so I had to move fast. I decided to start chemo first to shrink the lump that was over 3cm big before surgery and radiation. The treatments were really hard the first treatment I lost 15 pounds in two days, and I lost all of my hair during the second treatment along with so many side affects. After the third treatment the doctors could no longer find the lump, but I finished all eight treatments and the lump is no where to be found.

God has for a long time been first in my life and I knew I was healed even before I started treatments, but I knew it was a process I had to go through in order to help and encourage someone else with my story of faith. I finished my last treatment on June 11, 2007.

The gym that I work for gave me a bike to workout on . I stared working out at home two weeks after my treatments were over, and I started back teaching at the gym on July 30,2007.

I decided not to have surgery or radiation because I know that God healed me. I started taking Tamoxifen on August 20 and I am doing okay so far. We all have a different story and through all of this I have learned that there is nothing too hard for God. I found out my mother was terminally ill one Saturday in October 1995, and my mother died the following Wednesday, she kept her breast cancer from the family. I will never keep anything that I go through away from my family and I will live and not die. I went in for one day surgery to have my port removed on August 27, 2007 because I will not be needing it anymore my body is cancer free forever.

I still have some challenging days but I will take one day at a time, and know that God is in control of my life , and that He will take good care of me. God has truly proven Himself to me, and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.