Letters from Laryssa

 Hello my beautiful friend,    I am so sorry I have been MIA for so long. It’s been a very busy couple of months, but I am excited to get back to sharing my story.   You know the saying, "Comparison is the thief of joy?", its a cliché, but its true. This is something I am currently struggling with. While on treatment I compared myself to friends who had fought cancer before me who I felt did so much better than me. They were able to continue their routines without missing a beat. Meanwhile I was doing well to get out of bed in the mornings and I became very discouraged because of what I felt was a failure on my part.  Now that I am 6 months post all of my chemotherapy and radiation treatments I feel some resentment that I am not bouncing back quickly. I get angry that I still feel fatigue, that my weight loss journey isn’t going the way I want, and that I don’t handle stress as well as I used to. There are days where I feel like a shadow of myself and that ...

Hello my beautiful friend,       So, this story is a little embarrassing for me to tell because it’s the story of how I found my lump and how long it took for me to get it checked out. I am hoping my story will help others in my situation make a different decision.     I found my lump in June of 2019. I'm not sure what led me to do a breast exam. I was young, no history of breast cancer in my family, but nonetheless, I did and found a lump. I didn’t think anything of it. I thought it was just a stupid little cyst and went on with my life. As time went on, it stayed there, and I did a little research and found that women who undergo hormonal changes may get little cysts in their breasts. I had a hysterectomy in April of 2019 and have dealt with endometriosis and PCOS most of my life, so issues with my hormones was not new to me. I thought that was the reason I had a lump; nothing for me to worry about.     My husband found my lump in Oct...

  Hello my beautiful friend,           For a lot of women, myself included, one of the worst parts of going through chemo is losing our hair. We're already fighting this horrible disease, and we are faced with the reality that we won't even look like ourselves when our fight is over. So I had a decision to make. Let my hair fall out on its own or shave it off. For me, it wasn’t a difficult decision; I knew I didn’t want to lose my hair, but unfortunately that wasn’t an option for me anymore. It would just be a matter of time for me.              Something my husband said helped me decide to shave it as a precursor to chemo; he asked me how I wanted to remember my journey. I was going to lose my hair, but what I did not want was the memory of waking up to clumps of hair on my pillow, or to be showering and see my hair going down the drain. Since I decided to shave my head, I figured I would make an event out of ...

   Hello my beautiful friend,     In my opinion, one of the most important things a cancer patient can have is complete trust in their care team. These are the healthcare professionals that will be guiding you on your journey, and you want to be able to have confidence that they will lead you to the finish line.      When I found my lump, I called my gynecologist's office to get it checked out. Dr. Thompson is a physician who not only cares for his patients, but deeply respects his patients' choices and wishes. He sent me for a diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound, which led to a biopsy, and then my diagnosis. When the nurse at the at the breast center called me with my results, she said my gynecologist frequently worked with a specific breast surgeon. What a blessing Dr. Frame turned out to be. He was so kind and patient, extremely knowledgeable and wanted to make sure I understood the nature of my diagnosis. Find a surgeon like that, someone...

  Hello my beautiful friend,                       Cancer is an ugly word, and it evokes ugly thoughts and feelings. So, when you are diagnosed with cancer it’s quite easy to go to a dark place and stay there. For your own emotional and mental benefit, I highly encourage you to find something to combat this. Having a positive outlook is so important. I know not everyone believes in God, and not everyone believes the Bible is his inspired word, but I do. As a matter of fact, if it weren’t for my faith, there is no way I would have been able to get through my chemotherapy and radiation treatments.            Early in my A/C treatment, that’s short for Adriamycin/Cyclophosphamide, the beautiful scripture at Isaiah 30:15 was shared with me, it says in part, “ Your  strength will be in keeping calm and showing trust.”   That thought brought me so much comfort. I had complete trust in Je...

 Hello my beautiful friend,     I'm so sorry to hear about your news. I'm sure you are feeling overwhelmed right now, blindsided, confused, and you don't know where to go from here. All those feelings are normal and natural; finding out you have cancer is definitely shocking and will take some time to come to terms with it. To be honest, even a year later there are days where I still can't believe this is my reality, but I know you are strong enough to get through this.      I found out about my cancer on January 2, 2020. I had spent most of December going through all the tests. First a breast exam by my GYN, who sent me for a diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound, which led to a biopsy on December 31, 2019. Despite the escalation of testing, it never occurred to me that I could have cancer. I was young, I had spent all of 2019 getting in shape and there was absolutely no history of breast cancer in my family, so surely, SURELY, there is no way I have breast ...