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kelyon · 4 years

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Golden Rings 3: A Savior

The Storybrooke sequel to Golden Cuffs

Ruby and Granny scramble to make rent before Mr. Gold comes calling.

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Ruby Lucas was going to lose her goddamn mind.

Ever since yesterday when Mrs. Gold had stopped by the diner, Ruby and Granny had been frantically trying to gather up enough cash to make rent before Sunday evening.

It wasn’t like this every month. Most months only had four Sundays, so Granny knew that the last Sunday of the month was rent day and she could have everything ready. They usually had a week that was dedicated just to earning rent money. But this particular October had five Sundays. So when Granny had planned out the spending for this week, she had spent that money on stupid shit like food and the electric bill. She had planned it like it was a regular week. Not the week that rent was due.

The worst part for Ruby was that they had the money! Friday had been a great day for business! Granny had deposited the cash at Storybrooke Savings and Loan on Saturday morning! When they checked the account balance at the ATM, there was more than enough to cover the rent!

But Mr. Gold would only take cash.

And the bank wouldn’t open again until Monday at nine.

And Granny could only take out $300 out of the ATM in a 24-hour period.

So the diner and the bed and breakfast had to net a four-figure profit--in cash--in less than one day in order for them to make rent. Mrs. Gold had made it clear that there was only one alternative if they didn’t have it all when Mr. Gold came for it at 8:15 PM.

And Ruby was damned if she would let that happen.

So it was time to get to work.

Normally, Saturday nights were her one guaranteed night off. Depending on how wild things got on Saturday night, she might need to take Sunday morning off too. But on that night, Ruby pulled a double and hustled like she had never hustled before.

The first thing she did was scrawl OUT OF ORDER on the back of some receipt paper and tape it over the card swiper. The machine was working fine, but it could take up to three business days for the company to deposit the funds from card purchases into their bank account. Ruby didn’t have three business days.

“What do you mean by this?” Albert Spencer said when he came up to the counter to pay for his meal of liver and onions and decaf black coffee. He held up his platinum credit card like it was the world’s tiniest battle axe. “Why can’t I use my card?”

“Sorry!” Ruby lied in her cheerful customer service voice. “We’ve got the guy coming in to fix it on Monday. Right now it’s cash only, but there’s an ATM right across the street.”

“I’m not going across the street!” The old man was so angry it was like she had told him the card machine was at the bottom of a full dumpster. “How dare you not accept my card? I’ve got a fifty thousand dollar limit!”

“But you don’t have ten bucks to pay for dinner?” The words were out of Ruby’s mouth before she could stop them. She was too busy thinking of all the problems in her life that would be solved with just five thousand dollars. Or even five hundred.

Mr. Spencer’s face went purple. “Who is your manager?” he shouted. “I demand to speak to someone with power!”

Then talk to Mr. Gold, Ruby wanted to say, but didn’t. Instead, she told Mr. Spencer that the manager and owner of Granny’s Diner was, in fact, Granny, and that she would go get her now.

Granny had been in the kitchen. She was relieving stress by yelling at Tony, and the wait staff, and the food itself when no other target was available. When Ruby told her what was happening out front, she squared her shoulders and marched out for battle.

“What kind of slop house do you think you’re running?” Mr. Spencer spat when she came out front. “Why won’t you accept my credit card? Don’t you want my business?”

“Of course we want your business,” Granny lied. She didn’t shout at Mr. Spencer. But she kept her arms crossed over her chest and stared straight at him. Ruby had seen that look in her eyes every time she had ever been in trouble growing up. “But the machine is broken. I’ve already called the repair man. He can’t come in until Monday. So for the time being, we can only accept cash.”

“This is ridiculous! Whatever happened to ‘the customer is always right’?”

Granny leaned forward and gave Mr. Spencer a tight smile. If he was steel, she was stone. She wasn’t going to budge.

“Right now we’re living by another motto. ‘Cash is king.’”

Mr. Spencer looked like he wanted to order them beheaded and then burn down the diner as a lesson to anyone else who dared question the authority of him or his platinum credit card. But instead, he just pulled out his wallet, counted out ten one-dollar bills, and dropped them on the counter.

“See if I ever come back to this shithole,” he said very loudly as he left.

“See if you’re ever welcome back,” Granny muttered. She looked around the diner. “Anyone else take offense to our technical difficulties?”

No one else did.

****

That was the night that Ruby perfected the art of up-selling. Sure, you could have a cup of coffee, but wouldn’t a latte just hit the spot? We’ve got pumpkin spice, for a limited time! And avocado! Just a dollar extra! Are you guys celebrating? You should get dessert! No, get separate desserts! None of this “one sundae, two spoons,” nonsense! Live a little!

And it worked. By the end of the night on Saturday, they had almost half of what they needed to pay the rent. It was a record profit for the day before rent day.

But it wasn’t enough.

It was less than half of enough.

So Sunday morning, Ruby dragged herself out of bed to keep the hot streak going. She hissed advice to the other waitresses, and threats to the ones who were slacking. She led by example and smiled, smiled, smiled.

The rush started as soon as the churches let out. The same rich people who had been there for dinner on Saturday night swung by in the afternoon for brunch--except for Albert Spencer. You would think that spending an hour in the presence of God would sweeten people’s attitudes, but no. If anything, they were more demanding and sour on Sunday afternoons. Maybe worship had made them uncomfortably aware of their hypocrisy. Or maybe they just hated squeezing into fancy clothes every week.

According to rumor, Mr. Gold always started his rounds at the Sisters of St. Meissa Convent. Every month, wealthy parishioners came into the diner chatting about how he approached the Mother Superior just as mass was letting out. Mrs. Gold always stayed behind in the Cadillac. Ruby could imagine Mr. Gold in his black suits, parting the seas of the brightly-dressed faithful. His presence would be a reminder to people of what was coming to them, the reckoning that would come due that very day.

Walking up to a church, Mr. Gold probably looked like the devil.

That was why it was only the rich people who came out for brunch on the fourth Sunday of the month. Rich old people got the same cheap meals they always ordered no matter what Ruby suggested. And they tipped badly no matter how much Ruby smiled and laughed at their stupid jokes.

Even worse than the rich old people were the rich young people. Technically, Sean Herman and Hunter Duke and their friends were all the same age as Ruby. She had vivid memories of them all going to Storybrooke High together. But in terms of experience, those kids had stayed in preschool their whole lives. Without asking, the group pushed two tables together and stayed for two hours. They ordered nothing but nachos and sodas and they didn’t tip anything.

Plus, when the housekeeping maid Ashley Boyd saw that Sean was in the diner with another girl, she started crying so hard that Ruby thought she was going to go into labor. It had taken fifteen minutes to calm her down. Fifteen minutes where Ruby had to let another waitress take her tables and her tips.

Somehow, she got through the day. The diner closed at seven and Granny went back to count the register. Ruby stayed out front with the door locked and half the lights off. She told everyone to go home and used her nervous energy to do all the cleaning up herself.

Would they have enough? Was this going to work? Or had Ruby just pushed herself to the limit for no reason? If they didn’t have enough, was there any way that Mr. Gold would work with them? Would he let them have one day to take cash out of the bank? Could he possibly be persuaded to take a check? Or her car?

But as Ruby sprayed glass cleaner on the bakery display case, she knew that wasn’t going to happen. Mrs. Gold had made it very clear what her husband wanted Ruby to offer--something red and sweet.

Herself.

Or at least her body.

“Fuck!” Ruby muttered as she scrubbed at her reflection with a paper towel. The cleaner fumes made her eyes sting and water. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!”

The dining room was as clean as it was going to get, and Tony had already taken care of the kitchen. It was seven-thirty on Sunday night, and Mr. Gold always came by at eight-fifteen sharp.

Ruby wheeled her bucket of dirty mop water to the utility closet and drained it out. That was all life really was in this stupid town, wasn’t it? Life just made people dirtier and grosser until they weren’t useful anymore and then they went down the drain.

Fuck.

When she got to Granny’s office, piles of cash were lined up on the desk in neat rows. Granny was bent over them, counting out loud.

“Five, ten, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen--”

That was bad. If Granny was counting out fives and ones, they were scraping the bottom of the barrel. When she got to twenty, the counting stopped. Granny straightened up in her chair and let out a long sigh.

“Do we still have quarters?” Ruby asked, trying to be hopeful.

Granny didn’t turn to face her. “I’ve counted it three times,” her voice was as wrung out as a dirty mop. “And every time it comes out the same.”

“We’re millionaires!”

It was a stupid joke, but she was so desperate for them to have the money. She would do anything to put off the inevitable. For just a few more seconds, she wanted to live in a world where she didn’t have to prostitute herself out to her landlord and his wife.

“You worked hard today,” Granny said. “Harder than I’ve ever seen from you. We had to come up with a lot of money in not much time. You--you did good, Ruby. I’m proud of you.”

Granny was not normally one to offer praise. For as long as she could remember, Ruby had never made her proud. If she was saying something nice now, it was only because something very bad was coming.

“But…?” Ruby whispered.

“But,” Granny agreed. “We’re still short. By a hundred and eighty bucks.”

Ruby’s stomach cramped, like she had been punched. She was so stupid. She should have never gotten her hopes up. She had known this was coming. But the hurt still knocked the wind out of her.

“A hundred and eighty dollars?” Ruby repeated weakly. “Is that all?”

Granny spun around in her office chair to glare at her. “Is that all? Do you have that much squirreled away somewhere? Because I sure as hell don’t!”

“No.” She shook her head, crossed her arms over her chest. “No, I don’t have anything.”

She looked away from her grandmother. Without consulting her brain, her legs began to move through the kitchen from the diner to the bed and breakfast. She didn’t know where she wanted to go. All she knew was that she had to move. Some deep and primal instinct howled for her to run.

But she had nowhere to go.

A hundred and eighty bucks! The amount was the final twist of the knife. They were so close! Compared to how much money there was in the world, it was almost nothing! A hundred and eight bucks. Mrs. Gold probably spent that much going to the hair salon! Mr. Gold probably spent that much on a tie!

It was almost nothing.

But it was something they didn’t have.

So it was everything.

Ruby bolted through the kitchen into the other building that housed the bed and breakfast. She paced around the empty lobby, going in circles until she felt like a wild animal trapped in a cage. She was sure as hell ready to bite and claw and howl.

“It’s not fair!” She heard the tears in her voice when she spoke out loud. “We worked so hard! And we’re so close!”

Granny had followed her. She stood in the doorway to the lobby, looking at Ruby and wringing her hands.

“We could ask somebody?” Ruby tried. “It really isn’t that much money. Just twenty dollars from nine people. Or ten from eighteen! Don’t you have friends, Granny? Can one of them help us out, just until the bank opens?”

Granny took off her glasses and let them fall from the chain around her neck. “This afternoon I called everyone I knew. What we’ve got here--” she patted her sweater pocket where she had a wad of cash wrapped in a rubber band-- “is with all the help I was able to get.”

Ruby looked at her in disbelief.

“Don’t forget, everyone we know who’ll lend us money also has rent due today. But they dug in, and they did the best they could--”

“And it wasn’t enough,” Ruby finished, so quietly she could barely hear herself. “And the best we could do wasn’t enough. Nothing is enough. No one in this town can do anything, can they? I’m so fucked.”

She slumped against the front desk and covered her face with her hands. After a minute, she felt Granny’s hands on her shoulders. She was holding her, hugging her, giving her affection that Ruby hadn’t felt in as long as she could remember.

“It’ll be okay,” Granny assured her. “We’ve been in this spot before and we’ve pulled through.”

“Yeah, remember when he wanted your jewelry?” Ruby was trembling. “And the time before that, it was that old wolf doll from when Mom was a kid. He took those things, and now we don’t have them anymore. Think, Granny, what else do we have? What else would a man like that want?”

It only now occurred to her that she hadn’t told Granny about Mrs. Gold’s visit. Not about the specifics, anyway. But she must have seen the truth from the look in Ruby’s eyes. She could put the pieces together without Ruby ever having to say the words.

“Oh, sweetie,” Granny breathed. “Oh, Ruby Red, you’re not going to--”

“What choice do we have?” She backed away from her grandmother, wouldn’t look at her. If she thought about what she was doing, if she confronted this reality and then had to look into the face of love that she so rarely saw--she would scream.

Granny sighed and let her go. “At least it won’t be too bad for you.”

Ruby blinked. “What?” She turned her head sharply to the old woman. “What did you just say?”

Instead of backing down, Granny stood her ground. The moment of sweetness between them had passed, and all their old resentments were coming back to the surface. “Well it’s not exactly like you’re saving yourself for marriage. I know you’ve been around the block--been around every block in Storybrooke from what I hear.”

Her mouth dropped. For the second time in ten minutes, Ruby felt like she’d been physically attacked by something Granny said. But this wasn’t a punch in the stomach, it was a slap in the face! It was an insult. From her own goddamned grandmother!

“Is that what you really think of me?” Ruby whispered.

Face going red, Granny tightened her fists. “I think if this was a normal Sunday, you wouldn’t have woken up in your own bed--or at least not alone.”

Ruby opened her mouth, but no words came out. “So--so what, does that make me a hooker to you? Do you think I deserve for this to happen? You think because I’m such a slut I’ll be able to just fly through the act of selling my body for money?

“Ruby…” Granny tried to come closer, but Ruby just backed away.

“Don’t act like I’m the unreasonable one here! Yeah, I go out on Saturday nights. Yeah, I like to have a good time. Yeah, Granny, I like to have sex!” She hissed the word, like it was just as dirty as Granny seemed to think it was. “But that doesn’t mean I’m for fucking sale!”

“I don’t think--”

“You think I’m just like her, don’t you? You don’t think I’m any better than Mrs. Gold!”

“Well you certainly don’t look any different!” Granny snapped, clearly done trying to make things better. “Maybe that’s why Mr. Gold thinks he can treat you the same as her. Because you do dress like a hooker, Ruby. And before today, I wouldn’t have said you were much of a waitress.”

Ruby slammed her hand down on the counter. “I’ve worked my ass off my whole life for you! You’re the one that doesn’t know how to run a business!”

“What would you know about anything that isn’t boys and beer?”

“I know enough to know that a hotel in New England isn’t supposed to be empty on every weekend of fall! And I know that there are five Sundays this month, Granny. If you knew that, I wouldn’t be about to put myself up for rent just to save your shithole of an existence!”

“Don’t act like I asked you for any of this, young lady! You are free to sleep your way up and down the eastern seaboard whenever you--

“Hello?”

A new voice entered into the conversation. Ruby and Granny both looked at the door. There was a woman. She was blonde and pretty, but tough-looking. Her red leather jacket was amazing. She lingered in the entrance of the lobby, unsure of what was going on.

“Is… this place open? The bed and breakfast?”

“We sure are!” Granny recovered more quickly than Ruby could. She put on a smile and pulled out the hotel sign-in book from under the counter. There was a thin layer of dust on the cover, and Granny wiped it away with her sleeve before she opened it up to the woman. “How long will you be staying with us?”

“Just a week, I think,” the woman said. “That should be enough time for me to figure some things out. Then I’ll be on my way.”

“That sounds great,” Granny kept smiling. “Now, we have a forest view or a square view. Normally there’s an upcharge for the square view, but we can waive that--”

“If you pay in cash!” During the course of their conversation, Ruby had done some quick and desperate math. “It’ll be two hundred dollars, right?” She looked at Granny. “To stay for a week in the smallest room, that’s two hundred. But we can give you the best room in the house for the same price. If you pay up front. In cash.”

The woman looked skeptical of the bargain, but willing to go along. “Sure,” she said. She put her wallet back in her jacket pocket and reached down to her combat boots to pull out a wad of bills. “Two hundred, you said?”

“Yes!” Ruby squealed and reached out to take the cash. The precious cash--twenty whole dollars more than what they needed!

With a wordless look, Granny handed Ruby the roll of bills. Smiling more than she had in her entire life, she took out twenty dollars’ worth of measly fives and ones and added the blonde woman’s twenties to the roll. The twang and snap of the rubber band were the most satisfying noises she had ever heard.

Granny took up a pen and held it over the register book. “So what’s the name?”

“Swan,” the woman said. “Emma Swan.”

“Emma.” It was a man’s voice, deceptively soft and friendly-sounding. Mr. Gold walked into the lobby. “What a lovely name.”

Ruby glanced at the grandfather clock. It was 8:15. He was right on time.

But he was also too late.

Ruby slammed the roll of cash onto the counter. “It’s all here.” You son of a bitch.

If Mr. Gold was disappointed or angry that he wasn’t going to get his “something sweet,” it didn’t show on his face. There was something weird about him right now. His expression wasn’t sharp and calculating. He didn’t look like he was on the hunt for souls to buy. He looked at Ruby as he took the money, but he didn’t seem to see her at all.

“Yes, I’m sure it is,” he said distantly. He turned his eyes back to the blonde woman. “You enjoy your stay--Emma.”

The woman, Emma, gave him a pleasantly blank look. The kind of look women all over the world give to men who seem too interested in their lives. “Thanks.”

And then, as quietly as he had come in, Mr. Gold walked out. Poverty and desperation passed them by for another month.

When the front door closed behind him, Ruby burst out laughing. She had never felt so light. Emma Swan was the first guest the bed in breakfast had seen in as long as Ruby could remember and right now she was the most important person in the world.

“Oh my God!” Ruby had been smiling all day, but now she meant it. “Thank you for paying in cash! You do not know how much you saved my ass!”

Literally.

Emma kept up the same cautious-but-amused half smile she had given to Mr. Gold. “Who was that guy, the local mafia heavy?”

“Mr. Gold is the landlord for just about every place in town,” Granny said as she wrote down Emma’s information.

“Including here, huh? Must be some kind of hardass.”

“You have no idea!” Ruby was still giddy with relief.

“Anyway.” Granny pulled out one of the keys from the wall and handed it to Emma Swan. “Welcome to Storybrooke.”

#golden rings #rumbelle #rumbelle fic #rumbelle fanfiction #ouat

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enzaime-blog · 6 years

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Within five days, I know, I had breast cancer

New Story has been published on https://enzaime.com/within-five-days-know-breast-cancer/

Within five days, I know, I had breast cancer

“My children will be able to look back, and when they have a tough time, they’ll remember their mom did it.”

In October 2012, my husband, Michael, and I were enjoying parenthood, busy raising seven active children, ranging in age from two to 18. Most women begin annual mammography at the age of 40, but I was 36 and never had a mammogram. After I detected a marble-sized lump in my breast, I scheduled my first mammogram and ultrasound, which was followed by a biopsy. Within five days, I learned I had breast cancer.

My biggest fear when I received the news was not being there for my children—my baby was two at the time. It was scary. When you find out you’re sick, you’re facing the idea of maybe not coming out the other end OK and you have to put so many things into perspective.

My husband and I lived in Huntingdon Valley, PA, at the time and knew right where I would go for treatment: Fox Chase Cancer Center. We’re so fortunate it was right around the corner. My husband works in construction and had worked on several projects for Fox Chase. For him, it was surreal walking down the halls of Fox Chase with me as a patient.

Patti is pictured with her medical oncologist, Lori Goldstein (left) and her radiologist, Kathy Evers (right).Michael and I met with Dr. Richard Bleicher, a breast surgeon at Fox Chase. After considering my age, genetic risk for cancer, general health, and lifestyle, he advised I undergo a lumpectomy of the right breast with a sentinel node biopsy. I had the procedure on October 18, 2012. Fox Chase pathologists confirmed a diagnosis of medullary breast cancer, Stage 1C, grade 3 with micrometastasis on the same side.

It figured I would get a rare cancer—as my husband likes to point out, I always stand out from the crowd! At the age of 36 with no family history of breast cancer, to find out that I had cancer—and then for it to be triple-negative and a rare type of breast cancer—I was just dumbfounded. I know anybody can get sick, but you never think it’s going to be you.

Because of my rare diagnosis, a multidisciplinary team of doctors (radiation, medical, and surgical oncology) known as the “tumor board” was brought together to review my case. These specialists, whom I like to call “the meeting of the minds,” collaborate and develop a tailored treatment plan for each patient. After the tumor board evaluated my case, my medical oncologist, Dr. Lori Goldstein, and radiation oncologist, Dr. Penny Anderson, suggested I begin a course of radiation therapy and chemotherapy to reduce my risk for recurrence. Dr. Goldstein was no nonsense, but she was also compassionate. After one appointment, I was tearing up and Dr. Goldstein came back into the room and gave me the biggest hug. I needed it at that moment. She promised me I would be OK and that she would do whatever she could to get me through treatment.

I’ll never forget my first chemotherapy session. I was so afraid the treatment would change me, and I wouldn’t be able to take care of the kids and be such a hands-on mom because I was going to be so sick. The tumor board had decided on a more aggressive chemotherapy regimen for 14 days straight for six months. I was sitting in the waiting room and my hands were shaking; I just could not calm my nerves. I told my nurse it was my first time, and she really talked me through it. Another Fox Chase employee even came out to talk to me and reassure me that everything was going to be OK. Being taken care of in that way was just as important to me as being cancer free. I needed to know I wasn’t just a number. The nurses all knew how many children I had; they always stopped and chatted with me, and they remembered things from conversations we had had before.

My chemotherapy regimen made me very sick. I felt like I had the flu times 10. I was nauseous and tired and had aches and pains. A couple of treatments in, I kept telling my husband I just couldn’t do it anymore. And he kept saying, “One more. You can do one more.” It was mind over matter. I had to make myself feel like I was in control even though I technically wasn’t. I tried to do things as normal as possible with the kids. I always would do their homework with them, even if I was feeling really overwhelmed and sick.

I didn’t want the kids to be scared, and I didn’t feel that it was fair that my toddlers should know the word ‘cancer’ or see me being sick. It made me angry. But they were so resilient. I tried to make light of the situation. If I had to have a good cry, it would happen during the day when the kids were at school. But it was hard to hide a lot of how I felt physically. I could do it mentally, but physically, they saw me lying in bed all weekend. They would see me vomiting. Ultimately, I think the kids were OK with it because I was OK with it. I tried not to focus on it. You have to take things in stride, and you need to stay positive to get through it.

Fox Chase helped me to be positive. If I didn’t have that connection with doctors and nurses and even the security guard that I would talk to every time I was there, I think I would have felt more afraid. Knowing all those people were praying for me, thinking of me, and trying to get me through it made me feel like I could overcome it. Any hospital could have given me that chemo regimen, given me surgery, or done radiation, but it was the way that they treated me; it was the way they made me believe I was going to be OK that helped me to be OK.

In May 2014, I marked the end of chemotherapy by ringing the bell in the department! Some of the nurses even came in on their day off to cheer me on with my family and all my doctors! Someone walked by and asked who the famous person was. The truth is, I felt like a celebrity.

At Fox Chase, I also underwent genetic testing, and although I did not carry the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation that increases the risk for ovarian or breast cancer, I met with gynecologic surgeon Dr. Gina Mantia-Smaldone to discuss my options. My CA125 marker for ovarian cancer, detected through a blood test, was on the rise. Dr. Mantia-Smaldone was extremely thorough, and she recommended I undergo a prophylactic oophorectomy (surgery to remove my ovaries). With seven children, Michael and I were not planning to have more kids, so on October 18, 2013, Dr. Mantia-Smaldone performed the surgery using minimally-invasive techniques.

The date October 18 now has personal significance for me. On October 18, 2012, I had my lumpectomy. On October 18, 2013, I had an oophorectomy, and on October 18, 2014, I attended the Susan G. Komen Pink Thai Ball to honor my doctor. It’s also my mom’s birthday.

Today, I get all my screening tests at Fox Chase, including mammograms, DXA bone density scans, and a colonoscopy. Because of my age at diagnosis, I’m a big believer in breast self-exams. If I had waited for my first mammogram at the age of 40, it would have been too late. I tell everyone to stay in tune to your body. It’s sad that fear keeps people from getting screened. When cancer is found early, it is most treatable. Thankfully, my cancer was found early, and I can continue to be here for my children, Anastasia, Brittany, Mikey, Sophia, Sean, Declan, and Finn, who now range in age from six to 22.

I’m still involved with Fox Chase. I’ve done new employee orientation speeches and participated in an ad for Fox Chase in Philadelphia magazine. I’m also involved with the Breathing Room Foundation, which is based in Jenkintown, PA. The year I was undergoing treatment, the Breathing Room Foundation helped my family. So now, the kids and I, on holidays or whenever they have events, try to raise awareness and deliver holiday meals, Christmas presents, turkeys, and Easter packages. I try to keep the kids busy with volunteer work because when I was so sick, we received help from all these people who didn’t know us and took the time out to help us. I want them to learn the importance of giving back.

We also take more trips now and try to do things that we maybe would have put on hold at some point. Now we live for the moment and just do it. Cancer gives you a new outlook on life. You appreciate things you may not have taken the time to notice before.

When I was sick, I was angry, and I wanted to be myself precancer. But now, I wouldn’t change a thing. I don’t wish that I didn’t have cancer. It’s made me a better person today, and I know it happened for a reason. My children will be able to look back, and when they have a tough time, they’ll remember their mom did it. Even though it wasn’t easy to go through, I’m glad I’m here to talk about it, and I’m glad I had such a great hospital to get me to that point.

#chemotherapy #colonoscopy #Dr. Richard Bleicher #mammograms #radiation therapy #Others

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