Princess Sherry: A Survivor

Today’s Unveil your Cinderella client brings us a story of courage and hope for every person touched by cancer.  In May of 2007 Sherry turned 40 and went for her first mammogram. Not an appointment any woman looks forward to, but Sherry understood the value and made her appointment.  At the mammogram, she was told it was likely she would receive a letter requesting additional imaging. ‘That’s normal, right? Probably they tell that to everyone,’ Sherry told herself.

Sherry refused to let it occupy too much mental space.  She was busy preparing to get married. One week before her July wedding she received a letter confirming she needed more imagery done based on her mammogram results.  She promised she’d be in as soon as she returned from her honeymoon. And she did. The day is blazoned in her memory.  She sat in the obligatory gown that’s seen more than its fair share of tears and grief, and waited an eternity for the radiologist to look at her scans.

“Well this doesn’t look good. You have breast cancer and need to see a surgeon asap, like today,” the radiologist informed her.  The radiologist was a breast cancer survivor herself.  Sherry credits her with being instrumental in directing her next steps. Sherry tried to go back to work but understandably was a mess. Thankfully her co-workers realized something was wrong and sent her home.

Sherry jokes that she took those “in sickness and in health” vows and jammed them down her new husband’s throat. This was not how she imagined starting off her journey with her newly blended family of 3 teenage sons and 3 year old son.  She was scheduled for an immediate lumpectomy followed by radiation and tamoxifen.  For many, this course of treatment offers promising hope for a return to life without cancer.  Sherry’s journey was not so clear cut.

A week and half into her radiation treatments, Sherry began having a pain from an increasingly stiff neck. Three weeks in she was experiencing horrible nerve pain in her left arm.   She was being prescribed increasing doses of prednisone, but the pain only increased. New Years Eve she could not take the pain any longer and landed in the ER. “Either fix me or I want to die,” she told them. The medical staff wondered if they needed a psych evaluation. NO-she just needed the pain to stop!

Sherry participated in a nerve conduction study and a neurologist noticed her whole arm was atrophying.  Sherry was recommended to a highly sought after neurologist who was her hope at pain relief.  Next came what Sherry calls her “God moment” in her cancer journey. She tried her hardest to get an appointment with Dr. Reginald Davis, but to no avail.   He simply was too booked.

Sherry was passed off to another doctor.  She stepped on the elevator to leave, standing distraught in a puddle of her own tears. Standing there, a gentleman in surgical ware with a cup of coffee stepped on.  He saw how distraught Sherry was and they began to talk.  Lo and behold, it was Dr. Reginald Davis.  He told Sherry, “I’m going into surgery, it’s 4 hours long, come back when it’s over and I’ll see you.”

Dr. Davis looked at her scans and had her in his surgery line up in 3 weeks. He saw fusion had occurred in her neck, perhaps at 1 or 2 levels causing all her pain. Finally, Sherry was getting answers. What Dr. Davis found during the surgery was that 7 levels of her neck had fused.  He likened the tissue in her neck to a piece of chicken being cooked in the microwave for 2 hours.  Hers was one of the top 5 toughest dissections he had ever done.  There were multiple levels of bone spurs in her neck that had to be cut off.  Today Sherry has 10 screws in her neck and 4 lego style blocks in place of her discs.  She credits Dr. Davis with saving her life.  Sherry continued to heal and adjust to joining the camaraderie of survivors who each have their own story of courage and conquering.  Seven years later living life cancer free, Sherry credits her little Chihuahua with saving her life.

Anyone with a dog knows how they like to make a circle path as they prepare to nuzzle in and rest. Sherry’s little chiwawa was spinning in the blankets next to her on the sofa one night and landed her little 4 lb body on her right breast.  Pain seared through her and alarm bells started screaming their warnings.  Her mind went to the dark places she’d already been, to the dark paths she dared not tread again. She scheduled a mammogram. They told her they wanted an ultrasound on the left breast. What? “No,” she told them, “I’m here because of pain in my right breast.”

What she heard was, “The cancer is back in the left breast. All the tumors are against the chest wall so you would have never known. The pain you felt was just a cyst in your right breast.” Why didn’t her mammograms reveal this earlier?  Sherry had reached the 5 year cancer free mark so her mammograms were to be scheduled once a year instead of every 6 months.

At 47, hearing “it’s back” is disheartening on so many levels. Sherry was told she was too young for the return to lead to anything but a mastectomy. She endured radiation again and then began the reconstruction process.  Complications from her radiation made it impossible for her expanders to stay in. A week after reconstruction she was getting sicker every day. She wanted the implants removed. Her doctor told her, “I can book an OR for surgery in 2 days or I can open the incision site and take out the expanders, pop the implants and wiggle out everything in the office.” She said, “take them out now.”

The next day Sherry was feeling worse and beginning to struggle for breath. She went to GBMC unable to take a deep breath. She was admitted to the ER immediately. Testing revealed she had a staph infection and drains were placed in her. They also placed her on the strongest antibiotic available.  She watched as the drains steadily removed the vile infection from her body.

She was released from the hospital after a week. She returned to have one breast slowly filled. Skin and muscle from Sherry’s back were pulled through to create her breasts. This allowed the blood flow to remain in tact. Little Vinny’s provided her with tattooed nipples, but it would be 6 months after her reconstruction, and only that soon because of a cancellation. Her parents gifted her this, “omg-I’m getting nipples!” she screamed in delight when she learned of her gift!

Sherry has had plans to come for an Unveil your Cinderella session for quite some time.  She just turned 50 and is celebrating being cancer free.  She is giving a face of triumph to breast cancer.  She’s looking forward to her 50s because she says her 40s tried to kill her.  Nothing makes you appreciate turning 50 so much as clinging to your life through your 40s.

Sherry’s a tomboy and a kick ass conqueror. She’s not a complainer. She has determined that cancer is not going to take her down. After her reconstruction surgery, she kept trying to get out of her bed to dance, “all I want for Christmas is my two boobies,” she sang out.  After the fact, she learned that her boys came to see her in the hospital and gave her a kiss on the head then left quickly. They couldn’t bear seeing their mom in pain. The only thing worse than being in pain yourself, is watching someone you love be in desperate pain and being unable to do anything about it.

Sherry knows her future is not in her hands.  But the attitude she takes into it is.  She is determined to boldly face her journey, knowing that strength forged through battle prepares you for an embracing life that awaits you.  Her smile is electric and contagious and she is quick to offer support to others in their cancer journey.  Sherry, we celebrate with you as you lead the charge for other survivors to embrace the life before them!