12/02/2017
Dr. Cheri Moore from Arlington, Tex.
Article from The New York Times
Written by Dr Cheri Moore
I was diagnosed with terminal Stage 4 breast and Stage 0 Lung cancer. I was determined to do everything in my power to live. I realized very soon after they removed my right breast that I had no control or power over my situation at all.
I prayed for the Lord to take it away. I read Psalms 119, the whole thing out loud. I was begging God to spare my life.
There was a lump that grew in the center of my chest. It was visible after the right mastectomy. After the third treatment that lump was not there anymore. The doctors scheduled a PET scan to see if there was any cancer there because I refused treatment number four. The scan showed that all signs if the cancer was gone.
I had chemo just three times instead of the 18 treatments that I was supposed to have.Then they said I had to have radiation for 30 straight days. My body was damaged severely from that radiation. I was burned from the inside out. My skin looked like burnt toast. I was very tired from the chemo and very sick during the radiation. My body was breaking down. I developed skin neuropathy over my back, arms and feet.
I lost my hair during the treatment, my job, my sense of who I was and my beautiful shape. I tell people that "My girls are gone but I am still here." My abdominal muscles split and caused my intestines to spill through. Therefore, because I am breastless, I look pregnant and people ask when am I due. I am 53 years old. "I am breastless and beautiful," is what I tell them.
During the treatment period I lost friends, and family was distant. But my husband and very close friends stuck around. My husband was and is very protective of me. He never allowed me to see him upset or worried. He held my head and hair when I threw up. My husband is the best.
I am eight years clean, clear and cancer free now. I still hurt from the chemo. Also there is sharp pain that I feel on my chest and back. But I got 18 tattoos that I call my blue dots of courage, which mark my fields of radiation.
I feel that life is sweeter. Every morning I get up, I am joyful because I am still alive. Regardless of the pain and the stares and the whispers. I am still alive so I smile.
I am grateful that the Lord, the Holy Spirit, ate my cancer. I keep a scripture with me. l shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord forever. Psalm 118:17.
