Run Breast Cancer Out of Town. Please Read.

Dear Follower,

This year has been a hard and testing year for me. On April 24th (her birthday), my mom had to undergo breast surgery, a lumpectomy to be exact. A month prior she went in for a routine mammogram/sonogram. I'll always remember the day she was told that she needed to go see the surgical oncologist. Then the letter came, where it stated that there had been some suspicious malignant finding in her left breast. I remember crying with her from seeing the fear in her eyes and I can't front, I was scared too. A whole week had passed and the thought of that doctor's appointment kept popping in my head no matter what. We kept reassuring her that everything will be alright and that it was most likely nothing.

But, it was something. I will also never forget the moment that the doctor said, "unfortunately, it is cancer." I was sitting off to the side in the room waiting for him to just leave. The moment he did, the tears came rushing down. I didn't know what to say to her.

From that day on all I could think of was how unfair for her to have to go through this ordeal. She was put through test after test after doctor(s) visits and to top if off another surgery. This time to remove a central lymph node to see if the cancer had spread to her armpits as well as to remove the surrounding mass where they initially removed the cancer mass. Depending on her margins from that mass, we would find out what stage she was in. Let me just say, that period was by far the worst and toughest time my family had ever gone through, especially me in particular. I'm already a very stressful person to begin with and this just made my anxiety worse. All I could do was pray and pray every little chance I got.

Fortunately, all tests came back with good news, to say the least. My mom was diagnosed with stage 1B cancer and it had not spread to her lymph nodes and she would not opt for a mastectomy. This was the best news I've ever heard in my life (aside from my sister coming out safe from the world trade tragedy). Her risk of recurrence in the next 10 years also came back low, canceling out the need for chemo.

She does however have to receive radiotherapy everyday, 5 days out of the week for 6 weeks. She finished her 4th week today and thankfully has not had any skin reactions to the radiation. (knocks on wood) After she is done with all her radiation, she will go on a hormone drug for the next 5 years which will prevent any cancer cells from multiplying. Although this has been hard for her, I am forever grateful that she has come out a survivor and grateful that she was  diagnosed early.

I know you might be thinking.. why is Aida telling us this? I want to share the difficult time that has been transpiring throughout the last 6 months. I also ask you all to make sure you and your loved ones get checked regularly. Breast cancer has been popping up so vastly in women and some don't get diagnosed until it is already too late to treat. Don't wait! Talk to your doctor about the right time to get checked for you if you are young and have yet to get to that stage in life. The age to get checked has gone done to 35 now, please just be aware and don't ignore it. 

This coming Sunday (Sept. 9th) my family (including my mother) and I will be participating in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, here in NYC. I've never been a part of a fundraising race like this before and am happy to join. I would invite any of you to join our team but I know that most of you are from other parts of the states and world. If you would like to donate to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, my family and I would greatly appreciate it. (All donations go to Susan G. Komen foundation, not to my family) We set a goal and are close to achieving it. I will link our team page here: "Team Luceritos"

If you do decide to leave a donation, please let me know in the comment section down below. I don't know many of you by name and would like to be able to thank you personally. Also, please leave your name or nickname (whichever you'd like) on the donation page.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to me and please take care of yourselves and loved ones.

Love,

Aida

My mom and I