I Don't Even Have the Gene

Well it's time for the next surgery already! Tomorrow , May 4th, I'll be starting the reconstruction process. It is a short one and I'll be home in the afternoon, which will be so much better than staying in the hospital! I am pleased to say that I will be returning to Biola to finish both my degree and teaching credential starting in the Fall! Although it is not quite how I was hoping to finish school, I love Biola and I'm so excited to go back! My fiancé and I also decided to postpone our wedding until I finish school next Spring. A hard decision, but the best one! I think I may have mentioned before that I am not a fan of change. I am a firm believer in routine and that change is frustrating, horrible, and unnecessary (at least for the most part). Cancer obviously changes things. It changed the pace of my life. It changed me physically and emotionally. Cancer changes you permanently . Life goes on, but it is different. It will not be the same normal that I had be

Well, I'm a month out of my first surgery with the next one scheduled for May 4th . The first one is the most difficult, physically and emotionally, so I think the worst is over! I'm healing well, but I still have a long process ahead of me. I wish everything was done already, and I still have at least six more  months of surgeries and healing to go... Patience is not a strength of mine. I found out a HUGE answer to prayer yesterday and I am very excited! I will not be going through chemotherapy!!! As a girl who has worked really hard to grow her hair out for her wedding, I am so excited! Thank you so much for all of your prayers for this! God is so good! I now have some freedom back, because I am driving again! And I am allowed to exercise more than slowly walking around, which is exciting! You would think that sitting on the couch and relaxing would be amazing, but I was so bored! I am one of those people who purposefully stays busy because I can't handle an empty to-

Well its been a week since the first surgery! It was successful and I'm home, healing, and tired all  the time. The first step on the long road of recovery has been made! There were some answers found with this surgery and for that I am very thankful! They removed almost all of the cancer and the rest will be taken care of easily with the reconstruction surgeries. All of the edges and lymph nodes are clear of cancer (yay!). And the amount of invasive cancer was small! All of this is good news, although the results of the surgery are a pain and at the moment I hate it all! As much as I hate all of this, I want to take a minute and talk about how I was diagnosed with cancer because it really was God's timing. Women my age are not tested for Breast Cancer, because it is extremely rare. When I came home for Christmas I went into the doctor to check something that actually turned out to be nothing! Through the results of testing what turned out to be nothing, they found the canc

How is Lindsey doing? The question of the month that has been asked to my parents and fiancé about a million times. Unfortunately for them, I'm not one to constantly share my feelings, so they are left with guessing my thoughts. So that they don't have to make up answers for me, I will help them out. Tomorrow is surgery so I am honestly a roller coaster of emotions. I'm nervous about having surgery, but also ready to get this done! I check in at 6 am and surgery starts at 9 am.  There are good days and bad days. Some people are more comfortable hearing the good, so if you are one of those people just skip this paragraph! I am angry. Angry that I am not in school and my friends are all about to graduate. Angry that I'm not teaching students and doing what I love to do. Angry that I'm sitting around just waiting for a horrible surgery that I don't want to go through. Angry that my life will never be the same. But there are good days too! I know that no ma

I finally have a first surgery date!  March 3rd . Really soon, but that's good! I'm going to give some surgery details so if that's TMI please feel free to skip the rest of the paragraph!!! The cancer is invasive... so that's why it's so soon! At this point the plan is for double mastectomies and reconstructive surgeries after that. That will most likely be a series of three surgeries. This surgery will give most of the answers that I need to plan the rest of treatment. It will tell me if I need chemotherapy and if I will need follow-up surgeries to make sure all of the cancer is gone. I just want to take some time to point out the small blessings God has given me along the way! I am Diabetic! Which may not seem like a blessing at first glance... BUT it has prepared me for dealing with doctors and procedures and taking care of myself! It also helped prepare me emotionally to receive the news of cancer. I am able to come home. I get to live in my parents'

Hi everyone!! Many of you know that I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer about a month ago. I have moved back up to Washington and had to put college on hold for now. My goal is to transfer to a school in Washington. But for now I will be going through surgeries and possibly chemotherapy. There are lots of unknowns right now (which drives me crazy!), but more answers will be given as things move along! The cancer is Grade 3 which means that it is fairly fast growing. This was definitely not the way I saw this year of my life going, and you better believe I had it all planned out wonderfully! But I believe that God has a purpose in everything. I gave this blog the title "I Don't Even Have the Gene" because I don't have the Breast Cancer gene! I don't have any of several genes that lead to Breast Cancer! This was a complete shock to myself and all of my doctors since I'm only 22 years old! (Around the doctors I'm often referred to as the "22 year-o