I'm a 42-year-old breast cancer survivor. I was diagnosed at age 36 with no prior history of breast cancer in my family. I had two lumps – one 1.5 centimeters and the other 4.5 centimeters. Infiltrating ductile carcinoma. I had a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. I just passed my five-year mark the week of December 25.

After the chemotherapy treatments ended I went into menopause for about three months. I had hot flashes and my hormone levels showed definite menopause. I had known that this could be a side effect of my treatments but my goal was to treat this disease as aggressively as possible. I was a single parent of a (at the time) 7-year-old daughter. There was no question about it. I was going to live.

I had thought that one day that I would like to have another child. That some day I'd meet a man, fall in love and want to have another child. Well, I had to wait a while for that. But my menstrual cycle started again as regular as ever. Life went on.

In 1999, I chose to have reconstructive surgery. I had been wearing a prosthetic breast for three years at that point. I met with a plastic surgeon and decided on a tram flap procedure. I didn't have any other option because of the radiated skin on my chest. So I scheduled this operation the end of June 1999. They took one of my stomach muscles, and all of the fat and some skin of my stomach and then reattached it to my chest wall. It's a lot more involved than that, but that's the basic description of it.

Content on this site is not a substitute for professional medical or healthcare advice, diagnosis or treatment, and may not be used for such purposes. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical question or condition. Reliance on information presented on this site is at your own risk. This site contains the opinions and views of other users. Given the interactive nature of this site, we cannot endorse, guarantee, or be responsible for the accuracy, efficacy, or veracity of any content generated by our users.