Life after Cancer - How I got here

I’m 35. No family history of cancer. And yet, I found myself with a 5cm tumour on my left side. I was diagnosed with breast cancer about one month after my wedding celebration. September 22nd, 2022.

If you have followed along with Seed Confections through my treatment, I shared my journey. If you missed it, let me catch you up now.

Hi, I’m Gen. Chocolatier, pastry chef, business owner, and now breast cancer survivor. I started Seed in 2016 and had hustled since. I was a workaholic. Which any business owner or self employed person has to be to be honest. At least in the start anyways. I would work 18 hours days for weeks at a time during busy seasons and put life on the back burner. I did that for my first five years in business and it worked! Seed continued to grow year after year and even added three members to the team.

When I met my husband Matt, I really tried to shift my life to have more balance and time at home. A hard change that I still work on, but one that is so necessary and SO worth it. It turns out life outside of work is kind of fun. Matty and I have a story all its own, which I will share in another post, but for this story you just need to know Matt found a lump just after our wedding party. I made an appointment with my family Doctor and they got me in very quickly when they heard the word lump.

PSA here - my tumour wasn't a round ball. When I thought about a tumour, I always expected a marble. For me, my tumour was the same shape as my breast. Women and men can get breast cancer, so I highly suggest doing some research to know the signs and symptoms and learned how to do proper monthly checks.

I went for my first mammogram as well as a biopsy of my tumour and local lymph nodes. They would end up both coming back positive. Those tests were followed within the week by a CT, bone scan, and multiple MRIs.

I would get a call from my Doctor’s office at 5pm, asking me to come in for one last exam (I was flying to Vancouver in the morning for a family wedding, with Doctors permission of course) before leaving. She would wait at the office. That was the moment I knew I had cancer.

Treatment for me started with four months of Chemotherapy. I lost all my hair, which I was terrified about but ended up loving being bald. Then I chose to have a bilateral mastectomy. When you are diagnosed with cancer they do genetic testing to see if there is a link to why you got cancer, if you are likely to get other types, and what your odds of your cancer coming back will be. My cancer had a high risk of coming back, so I took both sides. During my surgery, two things happened that were unexpected; my surgeon found nodes and cells that didn’t respond to treatment and I developed a blood clot after surgery, needing another emergency surgery immediately. First, as it turns out my cancer had either spread or morphed into another type of cell. Luckily my amazing Doctor was able to take the cells out, but it meant I would need another type of drug to prevent the cancer from coming back. Secondly, as I was coming out of surgery, my team noticed some swelling in my chest, coming from a bleed and blood clot. They rushed me in for emergency surgery and with incredible skill and three bags of donor blood (THANK YOU), I woke up as the last one in the day surgery recovery and was spending the night. I followed up surgery with fifteen rounds of targeted radiation. So here I am, getting IV drugs every few weeks for a year. And following up with all the Doctors and all the tests.

This stage of cancer is hard. You are better but also still weak and recovering, both mentally and physically. I still have appointments every week and lots of follow up treatments. And yet, I’m also cancer free and done “active” treatment. Feeling more like yourself and with energy, but not reliably yet. You don’t recognize yourself in the mirror some days you try to cover the growing out hair you hate that day.

But it’s also has wonderful gifts. You feel like you are discovering the world again. You appreciate little things in life, as simple as going outside for a walk on a warm day. You cannot have this unless you go through an experience where these simple pleasures are taking away from you. You know how fragile life really is and you embrace moments like never before. The warmth of a hug from someone you haven’t seen in a while is therapy like you have wouldn’t believe.

Life after cancer is still a lot of cancer. I’m here to keep sharing my journey so Seed Confections feed can get back to business.