This may sound odd, but my wife and I feel fortunate that she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The American Cancer Society's new guidelines recommend women with average risk of breast cancer start yearly mammograms at age 45.
My wife Michal is 36. She got the diagnosis this July, and if not for a lucky coincidence, she never would have been tested and may not have discovered it, until it was too late.
We met with Dr. Juan Paramo, a surgical oncologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center. He explained that this was non-invasive breast cancer. Stage 0. They caught it early.
After discussing the treatment options, she opted for a double mastectomy. For her, it was a no-brainer.
"When you're young and you get this, every year the chances of invasive breast cancer go up. You have to get a mammogram every year, you have a lifetime of worrying," Michal said. "I didn't want to get a mammogram every year and put my husband and my children, and myself though worrying, is it going to come back? I have two young babies that need me."
"Unfortunately this is something that's becoming an issue for younger women," Dr. Paramo said. "We're seeing it more and more in younger patients. In Michal's case, she wanted to be able to have more children too, and because it was important for her to not worry about the future, it made sense in her case."
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A double mastectomy is a long, involved surgery. In this case, it took six hours. The recovery takes weeks and to make matters worse, my wife had the surgery on our oldest daughter's second birthday. It was difficult celebrating and trying to act like everything was normal, when her mommy was stuck in an operating room.
Thankfully, the surgery couldn't have gone better. Not only did Dr. Paramo remove almost any chance of a future breast cancer, but our cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Gary Rosenbaum, was able to reconstruct her breasts that same day.
She knew she was lucky, and yet six weeks of not holding her babies was hard.
"Every single day Jordyn would ask, 'Mommy boo boo? Mommy up?' I said 'No, mommy can't hold you yet.' Then the day I could finally pick her up, she said same thing, 'Mommy up?' She looked at my chest, then peeked down my shirt and said, 'Mommy, wow!'"
My wife had no family history of breast cancer, so you might be wondering, why did she get a mammogram in the first place? Well, you won't believe the answer.
"I had breast implants and wanted to get the implants redone (because it had been 11 years)," Michal explained. "So they told me that because I'm over 35, I needed a mammogram."
"No one would have thought at her age that she would require a mammogram or ultrasound," Dr. Paramo said. "But because we did it so early, we detected this before it would become a more aggressive type of cancer, and therefore it is completely curable."
So because of good timing, great doctors, support from family and friends, and strength that I could only dream of, my wife is now back to being a super-mom and completely cancer-free.
"I always say, I can't control 99 percent of cancers, but I could control this. And now I know it won't come back, and I can be there for my babies, and my wonderful hubby."
Once we went public with my wife's story, Michal was showered with encouragement and people telling her how strong and inspiring she is. This actually made her feel uncomfortable, almost guilty because, "Most women who are survivors go through chemo, radiation, lose their hair. I received a lot of attention and didn't go through all that. The recovery has been challenging, because of kids, but other than that, I was fine and people go through so much more."
That may be true, but it doesn't make my wife any less courageous or any less unselfish. She made an incredibly difficult decision and yet considered it to be an easy one. She suffered through a physically and emotionally difficult period in her life, and yet always wore a smile on her face.
For that, she has earned every ounce of praise that comes her way. I will never forget her sacrifice, and neither will our two little girls.
When Michal was diagnosed with breast cancer, Adam wrote a journal post on Facebook. Click here to read.
