Jerline

My name is Jerline, I am 60 years old and a two-time survivor of cancer. I was first diagnosed in November 2005, which resulted in a lumpectomy in my left breast. Then after the chemo and radiation treatments I was told the cancer was all gone. It was a very hard for me then because my body resisted three different ports, so I had to get a Picc-Line. So, that is what I did and a Chemo-Nurse had to come to my house every week to flush the line. I healed, but I had fluid build-up so badly I did therapy for months. I was in remission from 2006 to March 2013, then the cancer returned, this time in my right breast, and it was stage 4. As if that wasn’t enough, I had just lost my elder sister Dorothy to breast cancer in that same month, March 2013. It was a bad month, I was a mess because I had just lost my sister and I thought about what I was going to have to go through…again. Then my doctor tells me I have to have a double mastectomy and I was devastated, because my sister Dorothy had had a double mastectomy and she did not survive.

I had chemo from June 5, 2013 to January 16, 2014, and then in February I had the double mastectomy. I didn’t have any help at home except my wonderful grandson, Jeriah. Jeriah, he emptied the drainage sacks every morning before school, and then again every evening when he got home. A friend of mine LaTonya, also a survivor, showed him what to do, and he did it. He was only but 10 years old then, a 5thgrader. He took care of me so well; I was and am so proud of him, and grateful.

Thank you in the name of Jesus, Amen. Thank you for all you have done for us Lord, for without you we never would’ve made it. Thank you to Cancer Horizons for putting this story on your page.