There are 4 stages of breast cancer and then they get broken down even more within the 4 numbers, but this post isn’t about any scientific issue with the staging of breast cancer. This blog post is for the concerned family and friends of my community who read an article written about my breast cancer journey that included a typo. The typo wasn’t a misspelled word or a grammatical error, it was in fact an error involving which stage of cancer I have.
Those of you who know me or have browsed my website, know that my breast cancer journey is an open book. I have broken down all the facts of my diagnosis and my journey through surgeries, chemo and radiation along with the terrors of taking the hormone therapy drugs. I have put the words to paper in my book and have never been shy about sharing all these details. It is important to me for many reasons that my story is visible. It started as a way to communicate to all my family and friends what was happening throughout the treatment process in order to take some of the heat off my battle buddy and my mom from the continued inquiries into my health status. Writing my story as it happened was also important to me because I was told by many that the chemo would damage my memory... Should anyone else in my family (especially my 2 girls) or any friends for that matter, need me to recall my journey, I wanted the truth to be out there.
I was recently featured on the cover of Syracuse Woman Magazine and what an honor it was to be asked. I am grateful for the opportunity to promote breast cancer awareness and also highlight my charity organization. The whole process from makeup artistry to my photo shoot with the awesome Alice G Patterson to the lunch interview with Lorna, the Editor of Syracuse Woman Magazine – was fantastic and so fun. All the women I met that day made me feel welcomed, comfortable and just plain special.
Those of you who know me or have browsed my website, know that my breast cancer journey is an open book. I have broken down all the facts of my diagnosis and my journey through surgeries, chemo and radiation along with the terrors of taking the hormone therapy drugs. I have put the words to paper in my book and have never been shy about sharing all these details. It is important to me for many reasons that my story is visible. It started as a way to communicate to all my family and friends what was happening throughout the treatment process in order to take some of the heat off my battle buddy and my mom from the continued inquiries into my health status. Writing my story as it happened was also important to me because I was told by many that the chemo would damage my memory... Should anyone else in my family (especially my 2 girls) or any friends for that matter, need me to recall my journey, I wanted the truth to be out there.
I was recently featured on the cover of Syracuse Woman Magazine and what an honor it was to be asked. I am grateful for the opportunity to promote breast cancer awareness and also highlight my charity organization. The whole process from makeup artistry to my photo shoot with the awesome Alice G Patterson to the lunch interview with Lorna, the Editor of Syracuse Woman Magazine – was fantastic and so fun. All the women I met that day made me feel welcomed, comfortable and just plain special.
Debbie and Aunt Wendy reading the magazine at camp
Shortly after the article was released, I began getting messages from family asking if the cancer metastasized. Now, unless we are talking specifics, stage 1-3 are one thing but stage 4 is a whole other thing. The article stated that I have stage 4 cancer. In the world of survivorship, stage 4 cancer patients (who often get pissed off if you call them survivors), call stages 1-3 “early stagers," because the cancer has not metastasized.
Breastcancer.org states:
“Stage IV describes invasive breast cancer that has spread beyond the breast and nearby lymph nodes to other organs of the body, such as the lungs, distant lymph nodes, skin, bones, liver, or brain.” This is called metastatic.
Now, on my blog, I clearly state that I have breast cancer and I also have basal cell carcinoma which is skin cancer. Because of this, it is possible that someone could get confused and think that my breast cancer spread to my skin but in fact I have been diagnosed with 2 separate kinds of cancer.
Let me be clear one more time: My breast cancer did spread to my lymph nodes but it has not gone beyond that and I do have skin cancer but it is a whole other diagnosis – therefore I do not have stage 4 cancer today, and every day I pray that it stays that way.
So for everyone reading this post and everyone who read my cover feature in Syracuse Woman Magazine, I thank you for your support and your continued support of a great publication dedicated to the women of Central New York!
Breastcancer.org states:
“Stage IV describes invasive breast cancer that has spread beyond the breast and nearby lymph nodes to other organs of the body, such as the lungs, distant lymph nodes, skin, bones, liver, or brain.” This is called metastatic.
Now, on my blog, I clearly state that I have breast cancer and I also have basal cell carcinoma which is skin cancer. Because of this, it is possible that someone could get confused and think that my breast cancer spread to my skin but in fact I have been diagnosed with 2 separate kinds of cancer.
Let me be clear one more time: My breast cancer did spread to my lymph nodes but it has not gone beyond that and I do have skin cancer but it is a whole other diagnosis – therefore I do not have stage 4 cancer today, and every day I pray that it stays that way.
So for everyone reading this post and everyone who read my cover feature in Syracuse Woman Magazine, I thank you for your support and your continued support of a great publication dedicated to the women of Central New York!
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