Hi, everyone! Thank you so much for visiting my website to learn more about me, my family, and my breast cancer story. Because I met many of you at various stages of my life, I want to start my story by telling you more about how Pittsburgh became my home and about the details I currently know about my breast cancer. From Miami to Pittsburgh: I am a 36-year-old mother, wife, sister, and daughter. I grew up in Miami, FL, and left home to earn a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts at Florida State University. After graduating, I moved with my now-husband, Christian, to Iowa City, IA to support him through his graduate training in pharmaceutical science. Iowa was a fun and exciting experience, but, most importantly, we added our puppy, Marley, to our young family. He taught us important lessons about work-life balance and about sharing household responsibilities. After Christian earned his PhD, his training next took us to Memphis, TN, where I began my career with Hogan Truck Leasing and we had our first son, Warren, in 2014. After Christian completed his Post Doctoral Fellowship at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, we had the privilege of moving to Pittsburgh, PA in 2015 for Christian’s appointment as an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, where he started his laboratory in pharmacogenomic research. Here, we bought our "forever home" in a wonderful neighborhood called Edgewood and had our second son, Averre in 2018. Unfortunately, in 2019, we had to say good-bye to our fur-baby, Marley. When Christian and I are not working, we love spending time with our boys, working on our house, and dreaming of our future as we settle into our careers and our boys get older. Our journey has given us so many incredible experiences and we appreciate all the wonderful people we met along the way. Discovering a disconcerting lump: It has been difficult to accept my breast cancer diagnosis. The story of my breast cancer began one evening during the COVID-19 quarantine when I noticed a lump by my right armpit close to my breast. It was about the size of a walnut. I spoke to Christian the next day about it, and we decided that while I had few high-risk breast cancer features, I’d call my physician to schedule a mammogram. Concurrently, a close friend of our family, and a physician, gave me a breast exam and found a second lump closer to my breast. I called my Ob/Gyn and tried scheduling a mammogram. It was challenging at first due to COVID-19-related closures. But our neighborhood friends facilitated an appointment for me with an imaging center in Irwin, PA. Up to this point, I felt as if I was only doing my due diligence to assure that the lumps were benign. However, I had a mammogram performed on April 22nd and the radiologist found several areas of concern on my right breast. The two lumps that we had felt were swollen lymph nodes and not tumors. I came back the following day for a biopsy of the disconcerting areas and lymph nodes. Throughout the discovery and diagnosis of my breast cancer, the limbo between the biopsy and my follow-up visit were difficult. It was when my husband and I first considered that I could possibly have breast cancer. We were both scared and many thoughts raced through our minds. Nevertheless, I tried to suppress them, remain positive, and hope that the pathology reports indicated that no cancer was detected. My Diagnosis: invasive ductal carcinoma: On April 29th, our world was rocked when I received a phone call from the imaging center indicating that I had HER2+, hormone receptor negative, invasive ductal carcinoma. There were a few peculiar aspects to the pathology report, where the samples taken were actually ductal carcinoma in situ, which would indicate a premalignant mass, but because it was also detected in my lymph node biopsy samples, the diagnosis made was invasive ductal carcinoma. My cancer is aggressive and fast growing. No focal mass has been detected, but rather the cancer cells were found in 2/3 of my right breast. Accepting that I have breast cancer: Fear and anger of the diagnosis set in. Concern for how this would change our family and the lives of our sons overwhelmed me. Because the cancer is fast-growing, my husband and I had little time to process or grieve the diagnosis, rather we scheduled a meeting with several teams and took all the steps needed for me to begin treatment as soon as possible. So, I cried and felt all the fear, anger, and sadness just long enough to wipe my tears away, cut my shoulder-length hair off in anticipation of hair loss, and prepare myself for this journey to remove my breast cancer. I know that what faces me is not going to be easy, but I am comforted by the village of support and love that surrounds me each and every day from my friends, neighbors, and family. My journey to remission: My treatment officially begins on Friday, May 15th, but, unfortunately, due to COVID-19, I will not be able to bring anyone to my chemotherapy sessions for the foreseeable future. My current treatment plan includes neoadjuvant chemotherapy and targeted therapies, followed by surgical resection and radiation therapy. The chemotherapy regimen I will receive is called TCHP and includes taxotere, carboplatin, herceptin, and perjeta for 6 cycles every three weeks. The herceptin and perjeta will continue for a total of 1 year. I had my chemotherapy port implant inserted on May 8th, a PET scan for detecting metastatic breast cancer on May 11th, and all my heart and blood tests done to clear me to start treatment. The best news that we have received over the last few weeks is that the cancer had not spread to my liver, bones, or lungs. I am grateful for my support: I am beyond grateful for the support of my friends, neighbors, and family. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the dinners, sweets, and flowers sent to me. Your actions motivate me to remain optimistic and positive about my breast cancer. I cannot express how thankful I am for all of your love and support! Soon I will begin to lose my hair, become immunosuppressed, develop peripheral neuropathy, and likely feel tired and nauseous from the chemotherapy. Nevertheless, I will focus my thoughts on this part of my journey being temporary. I will surround myself with my loving family and look forward to my upcoming, cancer-free life. I have much to fight for and much more to give to the world. I am ready to be a warrior. I look forward to getting back to the days of working on house projects with Christian and living out all the dreams we have for our two boys. Documenting my journey: I will use this platform to share my experience with the hope to help others, to document my journey, and to let my family and friends know about my progress. I will share my schedule of medical appointments/treatments and provide updates of any pertinent information. I will also indicate the dates when I am most likely going to be debilitated by my treatment for those interested in helping us with meals, groceries, etc. Christian and my sisters will help me keep this updated when I can’t. Thank you, again, for your support and I look forward to celebrating my remission with you when I am cancer-free and we are all past the COVID-19 era.