About Emily:
I am an EXREMELY blessed and lucky girl. I have an amazing family and friends. I bought my first home two years ago - what
you’d call an intense fixer upper. =) I
love designing and working on my own house, huge passion for movies and books,
and coming up with all sorts of crazy ideas!
But my story and blessings are far from the everyday wonders I thank God
for…
At age nineteen, just as I was about to start my first year
of college away from home, I was diagnosed with stage four cervical
cancer. I had not been feeling great all
summer and they discovered a cyst on my ovary that needed emergency
surgery. My mom had to drive down to my
apartment in Mankato and take me in for the cyst removal in Minneapolis. I never returned to my apartment.
They found my cancer only because I had complications after
the surgery and was rushed back in.
Within a week of my “easy” procedure, I had cancer that had spread to my
lungs and was having my first chemo treatment. I would not be going to school. No one said it to me but no one expected me to be around at all. It is the only time I remember seeing my
father cry. My two younger siblings were
still in grade school and honestly to this day I don’t know what the
repercussions are that they suffered from that year. My mom dropped everything taking me to
appointments and being home with me as much as possible. I had six months of chemo. One treatment a month that took all day, and
it took a month for my counts to recover before I was ready for the next
round. I almost didn’t make the last one
on time. I was hospitalized twice I
believe during the time. I lost all my
hair. I don’t remember conversations I
had with people and the whole time in general is slightly foggy from all the
medications.
I started treatment in August and they did a scan in
December right around Christmas time and we were just praying that
there would be some positive results. I
had a
lot of people praying for me. One family got home and mom and daughter said oh I need you to pray for
this girl… it was both me through different people they had heard about
me. In December, after only five
treatments, my CT scans were almost completely clear. Absolutely nothing. According my amazing Dr. Argenta, it is not
possible that I got cancer, it is not possible that I was healed in that amount
of time with his treatment, and as he so nicely told me at my five year
check-up, he did not expect me to live two weeks the day he first saw me! He calls me his miracle patient every
day. I believe him, because it takes a
miracle to cure cancer. It’s a
combination of the hope and prayers, strength and knowledge and all these
wonderful people working together. If
he can encourage another patient with my story, I hope he uses it each and every
day while he’s battling this disease on the front lines trying to find new
treatments. That’s why it would be so
great if we could join together to help raise some money to fund cancer
research.
I did finish up my treatment with a month long of radiation
treatment after chemo. I would like to
say that all the staff at the UofM is absolutely fantastic and I wouldn’t go
anywhere else. They made an unbearable
time bearable. My family is wonderful
and I don’t think I gave them enough credit for that both then and now. Cancer doesn’t end after treatment. Effects of chemo and radiation can follow you
for a long time. I can’t have children-
I have to adopt. I missed out on a
couple years of my life. It is hard to
reclaim a life you thought was over.
But this year I
celebrated EIGHT years in remission!
I am learning to get my life back and be happy and healthy and have
fun! My Wilderness Warriors Ladies are
great for that! I feel like I can
finally stop living under that cancer shadow. I want to get out there and share my experiences and add a ton more to
it! Although, I’ll try to keep the
near-death count down, Dad! =) (For another time, ask me about the car or
house fire, etc.)
TTFN!
LIVING LIFE >CANCER
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