Advanced Breast Cancer is my lemon. Turning a death sentence in to a living sentence; choosing that in the midst of my own mortality I would live my life to the fullest is my lemonade.

We were a normal family; a stay at home Mom, a police officer Dad, a set of 4-year-old twin girls and a spunky special needs 3-year-old boy.  I was busy taking care of our son when I first found it; a lump in my breast.  Life soon unraveled as I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer at only 28 years old.

Life was not always easy for my husband, Steve, and me.  When starting our dream family, we were met with heartache when we found out our first daughter would die shortly after birth from two birth defects.  Our second pregnancy ended in a devastating miscarriage, but our third was a double blessing. Our twin girls, Grace and Lily were born six weeks premature and spent some time in the neonatal intensive care unit.  They grew, thrived and close to their first birthday we found out we were expecting again.  We were told yet again we would lose this baby, our first son.  We were met with many pregnancy complications but our Stephen Junior (SJ) held on. SJ arrived eight weeks prematurely, after he and I almost died during a traumatic birth.  All of SJ’s life has been spent in the hospital, doctor appointments or therapies.  Although SJ is met with numerous obstacles, his smile proved to us that we would always persevere.  Steve’s and my dreams came true; life was beautiful, normal and happy.

When SJ was almost 3-years-old, I found a lump in my breast. Our world slowly was turned upside down when only two weeks after my finding, SJ was diagnosed with a plethora of preemie related conditions that required braces, surgery and therapies six times a week. Three months into his care, I went in to the doctor to have my breast checked.  A biopsy revealed invasive and aggressive breast cancer, I turned 29 two days later.  Within two weeks of my diagnosis, tests revealed that not only did I have breast cancer, but it had spread to my other breast, liver, spine and through my lymph system.  I, a young mother and wife, was officially fighting Stage IV Breast Cancer.  I was told I had a less than 5% chance of ever being ‘cured’ and had a 2-3 year median survival rate.  My thoughts went straight to my children.  I fought so long and hard to be a mother and now my very existence was threatened.  I decided to create what I dubbed my “Mommy Bucket List”.  There are still so many things I wanted to accomplish with my children, husband and family.  The list is compiled of not only things I did as a child that I wanted to do with my children, but things I wished of doing, and experiences I had hoped to see achieved. Moreover, it is a list of dreams.  Dreams that make me happy.  And right now, being happy is pretty awesome.  I took the list and created a blog that I named, “The Chronicles of Cancer: The Mom, The Breast and the IV Pole”.   To my amazement, tens of thousands of people flocked to read my story.

I immediately started chemotherapy and had over 35 rounds, going every week for exactly one year.  I was a beautiful, bald, cancer butt-kickin’ machine!  In the midst of my diagnosis, I was absolutely shocked to learn that funding for finding a cure for breast cancer only accounted for 7% of breast cancer research.  So I decided, right then and there, I was going to change that. One thing on my bucket list was having a lemonade stand with my kids and living to see cancer cured and thus “LemonAID the CURE” was born!

We literally turned our life’s lemons into pink lemonade. We started raising funds for breast cancer by selling pink lemonade all throughout the month of October. We raised over $10,000 for breast cancer research and organizations within my first year of being diagnosed. I created an uplifting and inspiring Facebook page to spread the word of our story and mission. My Page quickly became a source of encouragement for thousands of women facing breast cancer.

At the beginning of 2014, the cancer spread further in my pelvis and I could barely walk. I had 10 rounds of palliative radiation to help ease the pain. I was able to take a break from chemo since all of my cancer was stable and my primary tumors almost shrunk and nothing new was growing.  I still receive targeted therapy treatments and go every 3 weeks for appointments. Just as our life started to return to a new kind of normal, we noticed our son wasn’t making many improvements and we were sent to a speech specialist.  My son was diagnosed with a serious medical condition and possible genetic condition that requires serious surgery and a 6+ month long recovery that included retraining him how to speak.  As a mother, I was devastated to hear this yet relieved to know we may finally have an answer for his issues. As a terminal cancer patient, it leaves me very stressed out as our lives are planned three months at a time.  As long as my scans do not reveal that my cancer has spread, then the next three months of our lives can sustain normality.  If my cancer would spread while taking care of my son, it would completely upheave our world.  He will have his surgery at the beginning of the year, weeks after he turns 5.

We decided that we would spend the last couple months of 2014 working to raise money to end breast cancer. In just 3 weeks we raised nearly $15,000 and means that we will have raised nearly $25,000 in the two years because of our efforts. And why does finding a cure mean so much to me? Well . . . finding a cure literally means saving my life. And even if I never live to see that happen, it is my hopes that one day my children, inspired and driven by my passion, will work towards ridding the word of breast cancer. And in that moment, they will think of me.

In spite of my terminal diagnosis, I have a spunky special needs 4-year-old, a set of amazing twin 6-year-olds and a dedicated police officer husband.  We are typical crazy family full of love and hope.  Cancer will not hold us down. We find humor in the darkest days and live in the moment each day.  People are amazed at how our family’s life plays out during this journey.  I want inspire people through our message; each day truly is a gift from God.

You can see more of our crazy cancer life on my blog or our Facebook page:

http://www.thechroniclesofcancer.com
https://www.facebook.com/CrawfordsRockingCancer