I will always be an advocate & help others battling TNBC ~ I'm here & healthy three years later with an excellent prognosis and you can prevail too!

I have officially hit my 3 year Cancer Free Anniversary!

At diagnosis July 2014 Stage 3C
I only did 30% of my prescribed chemo and was not required to have radiation due to my PCR.
Here is a synopsis below of TNBC

God is good every day! I am reminded I truly have NO problems as I'm healthy and raising my children! I never minimize my miracles and am very passionate about sharing hope to others that are struggling with TNBC!

I will always be an advocate

I speak frequently to other women battling
I work with Pretty in Pink and The Helene Foundation
We where able to get Samantha and Kyle Busch to donate a million dollars toward women's medical bills who can not afford treatment.

Triple-negative breast cancer is:

estrogen-receptor-negative
progesterone-receptor-negative
HER2-negative

About 15% to 20% of breast cancers are triple-negative. Triple-negative cancers can be more aggressive, harder to treat, and more likely to come back than cancers that are hormone-receptor-positive and/or HER2-positive. Hormonal therapy and the targeted therapies Herceptin do not work

Risks
Women (17.4%) without a BRCA1/2 mutation were diagnosed with breast cancer when they were younger than 40
Women who have multiple children and breast fed was less (less than 5% risk) (I by all statistics should of never had TNBC)

Treatment given before surgery to weaken or shrink the cancer is called neoadjuvant treatment. Neoadjuvant treatment often is recommended when the breast cancer is large, aggressive, and/or has spread beyond the breast to surrounding tissue. (I was stage 3C)

A PCR (women who had breast cancer surgery after chemotherapy was completed. A pathologist examined the tissue that was removed to see if there were signs of cancer cell activity)
I HAD A PCR all cancer gone!

Overall PCR rates were:
41.4% for women treated with standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone (this was my treatment)

At 3 years, patients who achieved pCR vs no PCR
demonstrated lower rates of recurrence (2.9% vs. 13.3%),

I want to share with you my last speech I gave to many TNBC ladies and a few of their replies.

My speech

A mother and TNBC pink sister recently passed away I am reminded yet again how uniquely bonded all of us TNBC ladies are.
It occurred to me not only do we all realize all factors, ups, downs, triumphs, and eyes wide open to all of the in-between.
I hear often "my new normal". In my case I feel it was adapting, and after my treatments I am now forever changed. Mostly greatly improved and for the better, but my eyes wide opened is both a blessing and hindrance as well. I gained friendships, strengthened bonds, my marriage is steel and I'm a miracle who NEVER minimizes my silver linings and blessings daily. I'm more emotional, and relish in my 5 children's lives I am privileged to share with them and watch them grow. I see my family and extended family for who they truly are and who was there and sadly not there when I battled for my life. I lost people I consider friends sadly clearly not the case. I witnessed how amazing strangers and acquaintances are to offer help and prayers. People who sacrificed their busy schedules and valuable time to help. I am now steel and grab every silver lining I can. My finances are strained at best, my medical bills are unobtainable in my lifetime, and I could care less.I no longer have toxic selfish people in my or my children's life.We are blessed to be surround by friends and family who too gained strength thru my battle and love us. Our silver lings are plentiful. I'm healthy and cancer free! I'm LIVING my life and I can honestly say Its that simple! I'm not weighed down by the "small things'. I don't let uncontrollable events, worry, or fear ever steal my happiness. I truly do not have any problems!
I was TNBC July 2014 stage 3C
My bilateral Nov 2014 I had a PCR No micro no cancer nodes clear that gave me an excellent prognosis and no radiation!
I'm here and healthy three years later with an excellent prognosis and you can prevail too and many do!
I truly know what you are battling, or have battled and how you all feel! You and your families are in my prayers!
Don't let the little things, or any person weigh on you! Keep your eye on the prize and keep supporting each other! The only control we have in life is how we behave ourselves, and how we treat each other!
I appreciate all my pink sisters
Those who are fighting
May you heal in Gods speed

Beautifully said sister. I wish I could hug you and I could not agree more
Well said sister! Congratulations on 3 year Anniversary! Yeah! Happy dancing with you! 💃🏻
Beautifully spoken. I'm with you on that my Pink Sister❤️👍
it's the new normal. Ur not the only one..love u
This...Great post. Fight on.
Well said. You speak for all of us.
This is absolutely perfect and something I needed to hear today as I continue my battle. Thank you ❤
Your words connected with me (and I'm certain many others)
So true God bless I am very grateful 🙏🏻💕
Yes! We are bonded as sisters, possibly stronger than blood. We speak a secret language, sometimes without saying a word, sometimes it's a mood we pick up on. The world can be a strange place after walking the tightrope between life and death. Even those who stuck around to hold our hand can not feel like we do. Usually it's late in the evening I feel the pull to my sisters pages. I am both heartbroken and uplifted being there, but it's the one place I feel I "belong"
.i often feel the fear and go to the dark side. I was diagnosed on May of this year as stage 2....unfortunately in had one node positive. I am also BRCA positive. My road ahead is long and overwhelming.....but strength from my pink sisters helps me stay focused.

I receive letters, messages and am truly inspired by women across the country. I too appreciate them reaching out to me!

I am fastly approaching my 3rd year anniversary of my health restored and being TNBC cancer free and my 44th birthday (Life is filled with silver linings)

In light of my pending 44th birthday around the corner I can honestly say I'm not only fully content, I feel great and very blessed.


In 2016 I attend my oldest of 5 children graduation and his starting college. I enrolled my youngest in preschool, Attend field trips and plenty of dance parties with my little ladies. I have attend numerous football games my son has played and witnessed his freshman high school year, his achievement of straight A's in all honor classes.

I graduated to blood tests every six months and have never felt healthier. I am a firm believer that we are more youthful, with modern medicine. Sixty is the new forty and forty is the new thirty. Between my kids attending college, high school, elementary, and preschool, they are growing and aging however I am not! Ha Ha..

I am fastly approaching my 3rd year anniversary of my health restored and being cancer free.
When I was told in early July 2014 by a physician that the lump in my right breast felt like a cyst and would certainly be benign and nothing to worry about (wrote it on a note for my husband) needless to say I went by myself  for a mammogram to have a look at "my cyst". I had four that day that showed nothing, even tho you could feel the large tumor the mamo did not detect it. First lesson of many starting my journey. I was taken to an ultra sound room, and had a biopsy and had no need to wait on the results over that weekend. As the biopsy was taking place I had small markers inserted into my breast over the tumor and told "they are to guide the surgeon".

The following week I meet my surgeon who informed me I had stage 3 TNBC and must have chemo first then surgery. At that moment I had a very personal choice to make. I could throw a pity party, be negative, scared, angry, have a can't do attitude or a million other negative emotions or I could FIGHT!

I am often asked how I conquered stage 3 and am I scared cancer will return.

At that moment I knew to my core I was not going to allow breast cancer to slow me down, steal my happiness, or my life. I thought, whatever it takes to get this off my plate the fastest and easiest way so my life could resume to normal. I simply was never going to entertain any gloom or doom or negativity.

"Courage is not the absence of fear, it's the conquest of it!"

A positive attitude and mindset is over 80% of any battle won in life! 

After my bilateral (best decision I ever made) I had a complete pathological response. No micro cells found, I was spared radiation and given an excellent prognoses. 

What happens when you mix Iron and Carbon, it makes STEEL.....When faced with any of life's challenges, when you prevail and arrive at the other end you become STEEL...

After my achievement in restoring my health my journey has enhanced my life, my opinions, views, values the way I live and I am positively forever changed. 

It is important for my pink sisters of TNBC  to remember it has many Positives outcomes!

I have studied UK, Canada,US, and  San Antonio TNBC annual meeting as well many long term studies.

It is imperative we remember TNBC is a very survivable disease and unlike Her 2 positive our risk margins mirror closely then drop considerably in 3 years. In 5 years I'm told by an oncologist the risk is a 2% over my entire life span (so divide 30-40 remaining years into 2% and it is almost untraceable. In light of those who don't consider TNBC to be cured, many oncologist would disagree. Your risk are greater to have a unforeseen life event (car accident for example) than a recurrence after 5 years.
 I also would like to add ,  I  have the privilege to personaly know three remarkably strong stage IV women who are thriving years later with stable disease, living a high quality life of normalcy and 21st century treatments and medications are enabling them to watch their children grow .
TNBC is very chemo-sensitive and the majority of patients confronted with and treated for TNBC will never relapse.
TNBCs had excellent outcomes even in the absence of adjuvant chemotherapy, and on reviewing the literature they found a 3% breast cancer specific death rate and  frequently carry a good prognosis
High radiosensitivy was suggested (7% of the patients had a complete response during  chemotherapy had no effect on the rate of recurrence or survival (6-year local recurrence-free survival, metastasis-free survival, and survival rates were 86%, 83%, and 83%, respectively.TNBC is more sensitive to chemotherapy. The rate of pathological complete remission (PCR) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy is higher than in other breast cancer subtypes

Although it sounds frightening, the fast growth rate means that standard chemotherapy's have a good chance of inducing remission.TNBC has a much better response to conventional chemotherapy than other breast cancer subtypes. It’s important to remember that most people with TNBC don’t have a metastatic recurrence.The risk of recurrence drops significantly in 3 years, when a woman survives five years without a recurrence, her chances of survival are extremely high.. A woman who has been successfully treated for TNBC and is disease-free 5 or more years has almost no risk of having the cancer come back.   I think the message is triple negative breast cancer accounts for between 10 to 15 percent of all breast cancers. We haven't solved this problem yet, but it's also not a death sentence. The majority of women with triple negative breast cancers are -- thankfully -- cured and survive. Triple negative cancer is something that if it has not come back by the five-year mark, you are almost certainly are cured of it. Most women with triple-negative breast cancer never have a metastatic recurrence or a new cancer.After 3 years the chance of recurrence of TNBC is reduced by 50%. With each year after the 3 year mark the chance of recurrence is reduced by an additional 10%-15%. Long term survivors (longer than 5 years) have almost a 0% rate that the disease will recur. With other breast cancers the recurrence rate climbs after the first 5 years. (You have a 90.6% to not have metastasis)

It is true that hormone-negative breast cancers can be more aggressive than hormone-positive. But the majority of women who get the disease survive.

Many women with TNBC have no positive nodes—and, if they do, they still beat the disease and survive.

We truly have no control over random life events.... The only real control we have is remaining positive, and how we behave ourselves and treat others! 

Fearless is maintaining faith, hope and strength in knowing you have the ability to endure, be triumphant, and celebrate all life has to offer~

God is good everyday!

My prayers are with all less fortunate and all battling this disease. 

Positive thoughts are always with my pink sisters and your families! You too can prevail and there is a bright shinning light at the end of the tunnel. Live life!

A few pictures of 2016 highlights!