Avery

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

On August 6th, 2018, at 19 years old, I got an unthinkable diagnosis of breast cancer. Did you know someone as young as myself could get breast cancer? No, neither did I, until it happened to me.

Less than a month later I was in the operating room getting a double mastectomy, when all I wanted to be was back up at college with my friends.

When the decision was made a few weeks later to go ahead with chemotherapy treatment, all I wanted was to have my old body back.

Over the next year, I had five surgeries, fertility preservation and egg retrieval, eight rounds of chemotherapy, countless doctor's appointments, sick days, ER visits, and nights when I'd run out of tears to cry.

But I am one of the lucky ones. My cancer, although in rare form, was thankfully Stage 1 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, with no lymph nodes involved, and hormone receptor positive. This meant that I had the most common type of breast cancer, the less aggressive kind, and it hadn't yet spread to other parts of my body.

Not everybody is as lucky as I was. Early detection is key. Research is key. Women are living longer with metastatic breast cancer than they used to. Let's keep it that way, and help to improve the odds that they will survive and thrive.

If you know me at all, you all know how much I adore Taylor Swift. Well, her Mom, Andrea's breast cancer has returned. This month and every month, I think of her fight, as well.

If my story isn't enough motivation to donate to the highest rated breast cancer organization, BCRF, do it for Taylor Swift and her family, too. <3

The treatments, pharmaceuticals, surgeries, and BRCA testing that I received would not have been possible without countless hours of research behind them. Please help me support The Breast Cancer Research Foundation by making a donation through my page. The process is fast, easy and secure. Thanks so much for your support... and please don't forget to send this page to any friends you think might be interested in donating!

It’s been two years since my double mastectomy. The picture is from the hospital that morning in 2018. I always wore a Taylor shirt to any procedure, surgery, or chemo treatment, and I always listened to Shake It Off as my good luck charm (I had always done this before my exams in school for positive energy). People who know me well know that I am really great at disguising my fear and sadness in a smile. I did a lot of smiling then.

I’ve been crying on and off all day today.

It should be a milestone and something to celebrate how far I’ve come. It wasn’t the surgery day that was most traumatizing, but the weeks, months, and years (my last surgery was less than a year ago to get implants) that followed were so hard emotionally. Nothing could have prepared me to look down (at the time) at my flat chest, long scars, and no nipples. I still get a giant lump in my throat just thinking about it.

I am happy now with my implants and nipple and areola 3d looking tattoos, but I guess this shows that I’m still “recovering”. Trauma doesn’t cease to exist overnight.

“You knew it still hurts underneath my scars from when they pulled me apart”

This lyric made me ball my eyes out the first time I listened to it, and it is again today, on this anniversary and my second day back up at college. ❤️ @taylorswift