My journey with breast cancer began on Wednesday, October 19, 2011. When I stepped out of the shower, I looked in the mirror and noticed an indentation under the nipple on my left breast that looked like an orange and a fingertip’s width to the right of it was a very small lump. I wasted no time in checking my personal library and discovered that it was a symptom of breast cancer. Fast forward to November 22, 2011, my oncology surgeon called with the results of the biopsies

The day after my 38th birthday, I went into menopause. Surgical menopause. Four years after healing from cancer, and two years after losing my mother, it was time to put into action the plan that my healthcare team, my husband, and I had decided after my first mastectomy: when I was finished nursing my daughter, I would remove my left breast, ovaries, and tubes. This was something in my mother’s final weeks that she also asked of me. She had fought breast cancer. Her mot