History of Events

To get to where I am today will take a lot of explaining and back story. Let me begin from the very start.

I met my other half (Wayne) about 3.5 years ago. We met online and fell in love. Just after being together for a year, the two of us decided to move out west to British Columbia together. We spent some time out there living and working at a ski resort called Panorama (http://www.panoramamountainresort.com) After being there only a few short months, we found out we were expecting our first baby girl. We moved back to London, Ontario at the end of May of 2008 so that we would be close to family and friends. Our little girl, Brooklyn, was expected to come on July 8, 2008.

We spent all of June trying to set ourselves up so we were completely prepared for our new little babe who we were expecting in July. We bought a house and the closing date was June 4, 2008. I went into the hospital that very day and gave birth to our precious girl at 6:45pm on June 5th (LONG labour...).

The year went on. It was marvelous. Spending time watching our sweet little girl grow and progress. The new year came and on Valentine's Day of 2009, Wayne and I found out were were expecting baby number two (Annabelle) on September 20, 2009. We were totally stoked, but nervous at the same time. My maternity leave was going to be ending May 2009, and I had no job to go back to since the last place I worked was all the way across the country.

It was a great pregnancy, up until the end. Wayne had noticed I had a mole on my back that just seemed to be getting bigger. I booked an appointment with my family doctor so that I could get a referral to a dermatologist so he could check it out.

I was 36 weeks pregnant (full term pregnancy is between 37 weeks and 42 weeks) by the time I got into see the dermatologist. He looked at the mole and said to me, "This looks like there is nothing to worry about. If it will put your mind at ease, we can biopsy it right now, but I'm 99.94% sure that this is nothing." I hesitated, but I knew that Wayne would have bugged me if I didn't get it biopsied. The doctor told me to call him in 3 weeks so that I could get the results.

Three weeks went by, to the day, and first thing in the morning I got a phone call from the dermatologists office telling me that I need to come in right away. I called Wayne, he got off work, and we headed downtown to see the doctor.

"You have cancer," were the first words he said to me. He apologized for making me think it was nothing to worry about. I never held anything against this doctor. I was never angry. I'm just glad I listened to Wayne and my instincts. Otherwise, who knows where I'd be in a few years from now.

After I found out it was malignant melanoma, I was referred to an amazing surgeon, Dr. Scilley. He looked at my mole and said immediately it didn't look good. I was scheduled to get it removed while I was still pregnant (39 weeks). A simple procedure that I was totally awake for. It didn't hurt, and it was just a tiny incision.

I had to wait until after Annabelle was born for the more invasive surgery to remove more skin and flesh and also to test the lymph nodes in my arm pit. Beautiful and healthy Annabelle was born September 21, 2009 and surgery was booked two weeks later.

Wayne and I went in early morning. I had to get injected with radioactive dye so they could take pictures of my body and see where the lymph nodes were that connected to the skin around the mole. It was hard because I had to stop breastfeeding Annabelle for 24 hours only two weeks after having her. Luckily I was able to get back on track with that immediately. I felt blessed that I had no problems getting her to continue nursing.

Once they saw where the lymph nodes were, I went in to get the skin and nodes removed. I was home early evening and really really sore. For a long time. It was tough trying to heal while caring for a new born and an 18 month old baby, but luckily my mother was there to help. And I don't know what I would have done without her.

When we got the results back, the cancer had spread to the two lymph nodes that they tested. Dr. Scilley told me the odds for living out the next ten years were 50/50. He had to book me in for more surgery to test even more lymph nodes under my arm pit.

The surgery went smoothly and again, hurt like a son of a bitch. But its starting to get better. Its still hard to do much with my left arm and it hurts to hold my babies. I'm just thankful that this surgery was available for me and that I was able to get in so quickly.

My chemotherapy is scheduled for January 8, 2010. I'm nervous.