Going Through Cancer With My Mom

I will never forget the day I found out that my mother had breast cancer. My husband and I were on our way to the grocery store when she called. She asked me if I was home, and told me that she needed to come over right away. My first thought was that someone in our family had died. We were standing in the produce section, and I told her I wasn’t hanging up the phone until she told me what was going on. That’s when the bomb dropped. She said, “I have breast cancer.” I immediately started crying. We left our cart in the middle of the aisle and drove home. She met us there, and we sat on the couch, and I just cried and cried. It was my greatest fear come true. My mother, who has been my best friend for my entire life, was going to die. She told me over and over that she wasn’t, that they caught it early, but I was still terrified. Little did I know then, but the real struggle was just beginning.

Two months later, I got the call telling me I had cervical cancer. This time, it was me making the call to my mom, telling her she needed to come to my house right away. Again, we sat on my couch, I told her, and we cried together. It seemed ridiculously unfair that we would both be diagnosed with cancer two months apart.

As it turned out, having cancer at the same time was a blessing in disguise. Even though we were diagnosed with different types of cancer, we experienced the same feelings: fear, uncertainty, anger, sadness. We were able to support each other in a special way because we both really got it. There were countless times when we called each other up just to cry because it was all getting to us. We helped take care of each other post surgery.

Since my mom had to have radiation treatment, we were declared NED (no evidence of disease) pretty close to the same time. That was the coolest part of all – we beat cancer, and we beat it together.

In July of 2015, we threw a party to celebrate being one year cancer free. It was an amazing night, and I was so thrilled to celebrated with my mom, who had been my biggest champion through my illness.

We had an amazing bond before cancer, and we are even closer now. My mom is 20 months NED, and I am about to reach 19 months NED. We are truly blessed, and we couldn’t have made it without each other.

xoxo Jennie