Hi! My name is Justina Colon, I am 34 years old, and I live with stage IV metastatic breast cancer. I was diagnosed on June 13th, 2005. Very ironically, that was my daughter's 6th birthday. Definitely not a day I'll ever forget or look at the same way.
In October of 2002 I had my first taste of cancer when I was diagnosed stage I invasive ductile carcinoma of my right breast. I had a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. But never in a million years would I have thought that I would have a re-occurrence and then have to put up with it as if it were an evil Siamese twin for the rest of my life.
I've had some real ups and downs over the years of living with this. Lots of different treatment plans from hormonal to now, chemotherapy. Also, promotions at my job, divorcing an alcoholic husband, moving three times, a hysterectomy, falling in love and planning a wedding...and the whole time my evil twin latched on for the free ride.
Oh yeah, not to mention the financial struggles, worrying about bills, my medications, groceries...the whole gamut. Now I'm fully disabled. I had a 1.3 cm tumor in my liver that thankfully the chemotherapy shrunk, but the cancer is still throughout my skeletal system. Therefore, lets keep the chemo pumping along with Avastin.
As of Thanksgiving 2008, my cancer has taken a turn for the worse. It has progressively spread throughout my skeletal system and there are now 3 small tumors back inside of my liver. I am undergoing harsh adriamiacin or "The Red Devil" as chemtherapy now.
It has been very tough and I have had lots of bumps with this treatment. I had forgotten from the first time I had had this chemo back in 2002 how terrible it really is. If you are going to contact me, please be a bit patient in waiting for my reply.
Having this disease has totally opened my eyes, but not just to the bad things in life. I sometimes look at having cancer as a blessing because of the wonderful things that I’ve seen and that I now can be grateful for. I've met people in worse situations than mine, better situations and they all give selflessly of themselves to help other people living with this disease.
It's been my dream for a long time to give back. To find my nitch and my purpose in living with this. Through this website I hope to do just that. I'm an avid writer and I've used my writing to try to make sense of living with this and all that I've gone through. One major thing that I've realized is that I am not alone and that many men and women have and are going through the same exact things. The only difference is society on a whole is not aware of it. It's all about finding the cure and not doing much for the patients struggling through treatments right now.
I’ve been active with lots of local groups in my area, (The Hudson Valley in New York) whose sole purpose is to help the patient right now. I want to pass their information on so in case someone needs help, there’s a link for it. I want people to read my poems and short stories and be inspired to not give up fighting, to realize someone out there does know what it’s like, and most importantly cares.
I truly hope that this website will be informative and enjoyable. Not all of my writings are dark and depressing, and they’re not all about cancer. Mainly, they’re about being a young woman, raising a beautiful daughter and who is trying desperately just to live her life…unfortunately this young woman has, as stated before, has an evil Siamese twin named Cancer.
