I was diagnosed on December of 2023 at age 38 after a mammogram and 11 biopsies. After my diagnosis, I received six rounds of chemotherapy at my local clinic, which is about an hour away from where I live. Once I finished chemotherapy and recovered, I moved into “surgery season,” which was the summer of 2024. For my breast surgeries, I traveled to Seattle, WA (about three hours away from home) for a bilateral mastectomy, directly to implant. During the recovery stage, I ended up with an infection in one of my incisions that led to an emergency explant. Thankfully, I was able to have that implant replaced after two weeks and started the recovery over again.
Once I was healed from those surgeries in early October 2024, I had a full hysterectomy and oophorectomy. After that recovery process was complete, my oncologist started me on fourteen rounds of chemotherapy. I’m currently about halfway through this treatment.
Before cancer entered my world, I had also suffered since around the age of 30 from diverticulitis. I’ve had five total bouts of diverticulitis since the age of 30, which has led to me needing a colonoscopy every three years. During my first colonoscopy, they discovered multiple polyps, one of which was precancerous. At my last colonoscopy, they determined that I have diverticulosis in all four sections of my colon, which means I’ll have to live with this issue for the remainder of my life because I am not a candidate for resection surgery.
Because I am very sensitive to medicines and have an incredibly low pain tolerance, my current chemotherapy treatment has been very hard on my body. I spend a lot of time in bed with severe fatigue, body aches, and nausea. I also frequently break out in rashes from the chemo that require rounds of steroids to clear.
Carlee’s LifeList:
- A family trip to the beach