October 16, 2024 – Paraco News
My Cancer story started when I was only 9 years old. I remember when my parents told me my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. As a little girl, it was very scary and I was not exactly sure what it meant. My Mom was able to beat it and it wasn’t until 10 years later, when I was 19 years old, I heard that horrible “C” word again. This time it was different, the cancer had won the battle. I watched my mom suffer. It felt like the longest but shortest 6 months of my life and then we lost her to the disease.
Since then, the thought of cancer has always been there. Once I had 2 kids of my own, I could not help but think about how I felt losing my mother and I never wanted my kids to experience that. I wanted to be there for all those special moments that I had wished my mom was there for with me.
Every year I went for my annual screenings. Mammograms, ultrasounds. Sometimes I went every 6 months. At each visit the technician would ask me to wait while the doctor reviewed the tests and she would come back and tell me I was good to go, this was normal procedure. Then at 48, after the normal scanning and testing procedure, instead of hearing you are good to go, I heard “The Dr. wants to talk to you.”
The doctor informed me there was something there and I would need to get a biopsy. All that fear that I had always had in the back of my mind has rushed forward. I remember I went to the biopsy on a Wednesday and the next day left for Niagara Falls with my husband for a long weekend getaway.
That Monday, I was at home. My younger son, Jake, was home with me when I got the call from the Dr. who told me the results were positive for breast cancer and I needed to go to Stony Brook Breast Center. Jake just hugged me and we cried, neither of us finding any words. Jesse, my older son, was there the next day with flowers, a beautiful card, and cooking me dinner. He hugged me and told me “We are going to get through this Mom”.
I went to Stony Brook Breast Center. My husband, In-Laws, and Sister in Law (who had gone through breast cancer 10 years prior) all came with me for support. I had to bring the disc with all the images and results with me to this appointment. They had not seen it prior. The end result of the visit was the Dr. advised me I needed a lumpectomy on one side, it was not a very long visit.
My Cousin was begging me to go to Sloan Kettering for a 2nd opinion. One of my husband’s coworkers’ wife had recently had surgery and referred me to her surgeon. I made the appointment and sent my imaging and test results to them for review before I was seen.
Again, my husband and In-laws went with me to meet the surgeon who sat with us for over an hour discussing everything in detail. She confirmed that I would need a DOUBLE mastectomy. All appointments were set and plans made for the surgery.
Until the surgery, I spent a lot of my alone time crying and eating Pepperidge farm cake. I did not want to show my fear to my family. It was a very emotional and stressful time. I did not want my kids, 21 & 23 years old, to feel the same pain I had felt at 19 years old.
My surgery was completed on October 21, 2018. I had expanders in place and went for weekly appointments until reconstructive surgery in February which failed and I had to have another corrective surgery in the fall.
After the first surgery, the doctors were confident they had removed everything and it would go out for testing to confirm what/if treatment was needed. The results showed that I did not need Chemo or radiation. I would need to take an Estrogen Blocker for 10 years.
For the next 3 years, I took the blocker. It caused severe joint pain, weight gain, restless nights, and mood swings. But I made it through to my Survivorship at this point and then, at 5 yrs. I graduated and was told I could stop taking the blocker. It was only 2 weeks after I stopped taking them that the joint pain was gone. I was officially A SURVIVOR!
Fast forward to 2024, during some routine checkups, my cardiologists suggested I get a calcium scan. During this, they informed me that they saw something on my liver. The fear all rushed back, this is how it happened with my mom, “it” came back somewhere else. The end result was, I had a fatty liver but my family and I went through all those emotions and stress again.
The fear never leaves, it is always there in the back of my mind. But, I AM A SURVIVOR. I hold my beautiful granddaughter. I get to watch both my boys get married and become fathers and for that, I am extremely grateful.
Jackie Romano