The Beginning.

It all started in April of 1986. My parents were stationed in Germany (they were in the army). My mom was a few months pregnant with me at the time. Then, Chernobyl happened. This is where all my medical problems have stemmed from. Even though it was in Ukraine, it was such a bad nuclear explosion that it reached parts of Germany. Unfortunately, my parents were not evacuated in time, so lucky for me (taste the sarcasm), I was affected by the radiation. Luckily, I was not physically deformed, just cursed to live the rest of my life living with multiple types of cancer, and not knowing if I'd ever be healthy. Even though somedays in the past I had wished I had just suffered from some kind of deformity, I thank God I didn't. In this society, we all know I would have been deemed a 'freak' and would live a miserable life from emotional abuse from my peers. I do have an enormous amount of respect for anyone that does have to live with this, I know it can't be easy. Although it has been rough trying to beat all the cancers I have had, I feel blessed that I have been able to find everything in the early stages, so it has been fairly easy to conquer the disease.

I first discovered that I had cancer when I was 19. They say sometimes it can take up to 20 years for the radiation to start taking affect in your body. This was the case for me. I went in for a regular check up, and they found abnormal cells on my cervix. A lot of people thought I had an STD when I told them I had cervical cancer. This bothered me, because it made me feel like a 'slut', that I was just a dirty person. This was not the case by any means. There have been several cases in women affected by Chernobyl that have suffered from cervical or uterine cancer. It took me awhile to get over the initial shock that I had cancer, but eventually it sunk in, and I learned to live with it. From there on out, I have been battling cervical cancer. It has come back 4 times total, each time requiring radiation (which seemed weird to me beings I had cancer due to radiation), and part of my cervix to be removed. I went through a lot of painful tests through all of this process. But somehow, I always seemed to keep my head up.

It's never easy being diagnosed with cancer, even if it is something you catch in the beginning stages. When you hear the word cancer, you automatically think of losing all of your hair, and dying. It's hard to get over that initial shock, but luckily for me, I had an amazing support system. There have been people that have judged me several times for having cervical cancer, but I just have to keep reminding myself that they just don't understand the situation in whole. Cervical cancer doesn't always mean you have a sexually transmitted disease, so I think that is the hardest part I had with it after getting over the initial shock.

They told me I was not going to be able to have children, that if I did get pregnant, I wouldn't be able to carry to full term. This soon proved to be true having 7 miscarriages before the age of 25. I was finally able to have a beautiful baby girl, Hazel, in July of 2010. This is what lead me to discover I had thyroid cancer. I probably would never have found I had cancer if it weren't for having Hazel. I thank God every day for this beautiful little miracle.