Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.
I want to use this platform to tell my whole story, in hopes that it helps someone out there. If you notice something strange, get it checked!
I first noticed a lump in my left breast just under a year ago, while I was pregnant with my second son, Zach. Since I was pregnant, I just assumed it was pregnancy related and didn’t think much of it. Over time, the lump grew a little larger and became a bit more spread out, but as a pregnant body is ever changing, I still chalked it up to that.
After Zach was born, things changed a bit. I noticed that my breast was swollen and almost waterlogged. When I went into the doctor, they didn’t see anything strange on the ultrasound and sent me home with medications for mastitis. As I was nursing at the time, I just assumed that the denseness that I was feeling in my breast had more to do with breastfeeding and active milk ducts. After a while, the inflammation went away, but the denseness remained.
A few months later, I was reaching for a bowl on the top shelf and noticed a tug in my armpit, which turned out to be a hard lump that I had never felt before. This is where my mindset changed a bit and I realized I needed to get things checked out.
After visiting my general doctor, she sent me for a mammogram and ultrasound. During my ultrasound, I could tell something was wrong. The head radiologist came in to double check everything and basically told me right then and there that he was concerned that this was breast cancer. We had to do a biopsy to be sure, but he was confident in what he was seeing. With urgency in his voice, he told me that he was coming in on his day off the next day to do the biopsy, which did confirm his initial thoughts - it was breast cancer.
From there, it was a whirlwind of appointments, second opinions, MRI’s, PET Scans, bone scans, blood tests, heart tests, etc. After all of the testing, it was determined that I have stage 3 breast cancer.
My treatment plan consists of 6 rounds of chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, then a year of HER2 therapy along with 5-10 years of hormonal therapy.
This will undoubtedly be a very long road, but I am so lucky and blessed to have such an amazing family and group of friends by my side.
2021 has been a whirlwind - my cancer diagnosis came on the tailend of my dad’s Leukemia diagnosis. We are fighting the good fight together! Please send prayers and positive vibes his way and follow his story here:
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/johnsablak 
