Elly’s friend, Lindsay Bransen on left; Elly Blacquiere on right
Elly: “’In the depth of winter, there lives inside me an invincible summer.’ I love that quote and tried to keep cancer from stealing the summer inside me.”
In the summer of 2008, I moved to South Carolina to live with 4 of my girlfriends from college. It was the best and worst year of my life. The 5 of us were in a new place trying to make it on our own and starting our careers. We took weekend trips, throwing ourselves into southern culture, trying to experience all we could. We spent all of our time together and became a family. We knew everything about each other. During one of our nights where we lounged in the living room, I told the girls that I had felt a lump in my breast. I have always been a worrier, so even I didn’t take myself too seriously. They told me to go to the doctor if it was bothering me. My initial response was sarcastic saying, “Yeah… I’ll just schedule an appointment in all my free time”. I was in my first year of teaching and a head varsity softball coach. I was putting in long hours and the time commitments had taken over my life. I also did not have a doctor in South Carolina at the time, so that was another dilemma. I let a couple of months go by and during that time my friend, Amy, was in my ear about seeing a doctor. She would not let it go and was constantly reminding me until I finally made an appointment. I will be forever grateful to her for her nagging, because she could have saved my life.
Amy, Megan & Elly (left to right)
When I visited the gynecologist I remember feeling embarrassed to tell her because I thought I was just being paranoid. She told me it was nothing abnormal for someone my age. I should just monitor it, but she gave me a number to call if I wanted to get a mammogram. The following week it was still bothering me and I could feel the lump while sleeping on my stomach. I decided to schedule an appointment for my own peace of mind. My appointment was before school and when I got there they told me because of my age, they were going to do an ultra sound. The doctors knew right away that the big mass was Continue reading
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