Erin Lively

Dear Family and Friends,


Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep all of you updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.


My journey with breast cancer began in July of 2014.  My youngest daughter, Frances, was 5 months old.  I had what I thought was a clogged milk duct, but it wouldn't go away and was hard to touch.  My mother, while visiting, suggested I go to the doctor just to be sure.  I was diagnosed with  Stage 1 breast cancer soon after.  I completed chemotherapy and radiation in February 2015.  I spent most of 2015 trying to adjust to hormonal meds and figure out what was the best for me.  I had a lot of back pain which eventually moved into my chest area.  I had an MRI in May 2016 that showed 85% of my sternum was disease.  We also found out, after a chest CT, that it was present in my lungs and lymph nodes as well.  


And so this new part of the journey begins.   I have Metastatic Breast Cancer.  This isn't a good disease to have.  According to statistics, there is no cure and only so many medicines that are used to treat it.  I also have three small children and a husband that I want to grow old with.  I have faith and hope that God will work all of this out, somehow...  


Many people ask how they can help and I only ask for one thing, please pray.  My family and friends have chosen Blessed Alvaro Del Portillo as my intercessor before God (his prayer card is my account photo).  You can print it and put it by your bed, use it as a bookmark, tape it to the refrigerator or anyplace that helps you to remember.  It doesn't have to be a prayer to Blessed Alvaro though;  it could be a rosary in the car on the way to work, an offering while cleaning or doing a mundane task, a quick Our Father while washing dishes.   I know that God hears our prayers and please have hope with me, that His plan is for a complete healing.  We won't know if we don't ask, so please, just ask.