As Erica Rimlinger said
Six months after my first pregnancy, I felt a dumpling in my chest and brought it up to my doctor’s appointment. “Oh, that’s normal,” said my OB-GYN. “That happens when you are pregnant.”
Three years later, in 2022, I was sitting in a hospital dress in which I looked at a pet scan of my body. Every field of light on the black background pointed where cancer lived. The scan was illuminated like the Las Vegas Strip at night.
This lump was not “normal”. It was her2-positive breast cancer, and when he was discovered three years later, it had spread everywhere.
As shocking as this picture was, I knew that something was wrong in my body after my daughter was born, and three years later. My hair had become three colors darker and fell out and broke. I slept 12 hours a night and made a nap for two hours to survive the day. I saw specialists who diagnosed me with hypothyroidism. In the summer of 2022 I found Dimpling in my chest as if I had a broken implant – except that I didn’t have any implants. Again a dermatologist told me that it was “normal”.
In autumn 2022, the muscles felt sore in my chest, and when I showered, I felt a lump. This time my doctor told me that I should get a mammogram and an ultrasound, which led to a biopsy and diagnosis. I was in early 30th, mother of a toddler, had always worked out and had no family history of cancer. How could I have breast cancer? I didn’t fit the criteria.
But the PET scan, which shone brightly, showed breast cancer, which had spread to my lymph nodes, thyroid gland, kidneys, liver, stomach, skeletal system and much more.
I immediately started chemotherapy and hormone suppression. My insurance would not cover MRI of the brain, although I had cancer from the neck everywhere and usually leads to the brain when it spreads out. My doctor fought for the MRI of the brain and in February 2023 it became clear.
Further good news followed: In April 2023 I ended chemotherapy and my tumors had shrunk considerably. My liver enzymes were normal. I stayed with hormone therapy and my hair grew back. I had regular scans to make sure that I was still moving on my goal of NED, “no evidence of diseases”. My doctor sent me in August for a second MRI of the brain.
I was sitting on the couch and my daughter was ready to bring her to school when I got the call about the MRI results of the brain.
It was the worst scenario: Cancer was in my spinal cord fluid. If cancer metastasis there, it is called leptomeneningen salaries and is incurable. When I hurried after my doctor and three other doctors this morning, I was told that I would live with treatment for two weeks without treatment and four months.
I had 10 round radiation on my whole brain and the whole spine. I learned that there was a medical team with proton radiation in Baltimore. My insurance company contested this treatment, but I fought and won.
2025
In Baltimore I stayed in a house for young adults who fought for cancer. I missed my daughter and husband in Tampa, but it was nice to have a car service in the hospital and the camaraderie of a survival community with people my age.
However, the treatment itself was not nice. I vomited all night all night home and all night all night, even though I had received anti-paint medication. The second round gave me nausea from the smell of burning meat. I was told that only a few people could smell that during the treatment. After the first four days of treatment, I handed over every other hour.
After 10 laps I lost £ 30 and felt as if my esophagus had burned down. But I did it. Now I was able to return home and lead my first operation: I would insert a port to my brain that could deliver a new vaccine directly into my spinal cord fluid. The vaccine was so new that I would be the second patient who got it.
For the next 16 Mondays, I appeared at six to eight hours. Although the vaccine only lasted 10 minutes, it could only be mixed after checking in to the hospital, so that most of the time was spent. When the vaccine drove into my spinal cord through the port in my brain, I could hear it. Then came the pain that I rated 10 out of 10. It was so difficult that I couldn’t move an hour later, so strict that when my mother drove me home and hit a speed base, I went from the pain all night.
In January 2024 I reached my destination from Ned from the neck down, but scans showed that I had developed brain tumors. I switched to breast cancer treatment that exceeded the blood-brain barrier. I could take this medication as a pill at home, but 80% of the view made me lose my right eye. I started to get injections in the eyeball to prevent it from spreading to the other eye, but it didn’t work.
2025 (photo/Danielle Nicole)
I had to switch to my third treatment line in two years. I now get this chemotherapy every three weeks. The three to five days are hard, but I get good in this medication for two weeks.
My health service providers predicted that I would survive for four months, but now I have lived with leptomening engineering. I am in an unknown area. So far I am the only person who could end the vaccine.
I discovered the Leptomingal Cancer Foundation, which for people connected and supported with this disease. I have met incredible people in this network and I am always ready to share my experiences with the vaccine with people with questions. I encourage people to try it, but I don’t accelerate it or just let it sound.
The people I met through this resource helped me to live with my illness. I support myself. I try every attempt and new treatment, even if it is scary. I concentrate up to the front. My family planned a trip to Jackson Hole next March. My daughter Palmer has never seen snow. I want to do this with her first and all the first. She has so many to experience.
I am a logical person and I’m not in rejection. I only become emotional when I talk about Palmer. It is the reason why I fight. It is light and joy and it will be the reason why I know that my family will be fine. It will bring all through that.
After my diagnosis, I wrote 21 birthday letters for Palmer. I wanted her to read her on her birthday after being gone to make sure she knew that her mother’s love stayed with her when she grew up. I have now lived long enough to throw away the first five letters because I can tell her that I love her personally. I am now determined to throw the sixth.
This educational resource was created with the support of Merck and Daiichi.
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Our real women, real stories are the authentic experiences of women in real life. The views, opinions and experiences that are shared in these stories are not supported by healthwomen and do not necessarily reflect the official politics or position of healthwomen.
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