A Survivor Story: Why Michelle Ruth is Ready to Relay on June 14
(Michelle Ruth, Relay for Life Ferndale, June 6, 2014)
Below is the story of a survivor. She is taking part in Relay for Life Ferndale, a 24 hour walk to raise money for the American Cancer Society. There is still time to get involved, by signing up to Relay or by donating to someone who is. Learn more at www.relayforlife.org/ferndalemi.
 
May 3rd 2011 is a day I will never forget.
I received the phone call from my doctor that the tumor they found was cancerous.  The first 24 hours were horrible.  It was the unknown that I feared because we did not know what stage it was, etc.  By the next afternoon, I was relieved to hear I had the “Cadillac” of breast cancers if there is such a thing!  Stage One, minimally invasive surgery as long as the lymph nodes did not show any cancer.

May 23rd 2011
Surgery Day.  After they found another tumor in an MRI, they knew now they had to take out two.  Luckily they were very close together, they just didn’t know if it was cancerous or not.  Well, it wasn’t.  Woo Hoo.  No cancer in the lymph nodes either.  Just the two tumors were taken out and for the most part my breast was intact, just a little missing from the bottom.  Boobs are overrated anyway, right?
June 2011
Meeting with Chemo Oncologist.  I was told originally that no chemo was necessary, just radiation.  Well, after all the tests they did on my tumors, they highly suggested I go through chemo.  That would cut my chance of it coming back in 1/2.  It didn’t take me long to figure out what I needed to do as I had a 10 year daughter and 20 year old son.  It was a no brainer.  Get the chemo.
July ? 2011
Very significant day.  It’s amazing how an illness can really bring a family together.  It was my first chemo round and my son and I had a falling out about 9 months prior.  A lot of my friends and family know the struggles we had.   I had not seen nor talked to him in many, many, many months.  He and his friend asked if they could come to the hospital to be with me.  They brought me home after chemo and the rest is history.  Tyler was there for me every step of the way and we are now closer than any Mother and Son can be.  People find it interesting when I tell them that perhaps God had a plan, and I had to go through cancer for our lives to improve with each other.
End of October 2011
After the 4 grueling rounds of chemo (much tougher than I thought it would be), I started my journey of daily radiation treatments 5 days a week.  I continued that through January 4th which was my last treatment of ANYTHING other than getting my regular mammograms every 6 months now.  WOO HOO!!
I have so much to be grateful for.  My friends, my family, my colleagues and God for getting me through this.  THIS IS WHY I DO WHAT I DO TO HELP RAISE MONEY FOR CANCER AWARENESS.   I pray that someday sooner than later, a cure for all cancers will be found.  Until then, I’ll never stop trying to help.    Thank you all for reading my story.