Stephanie Sharp
Age: 47
Owner of Sharp Designs

My breast cancer journey didn’t start in the typical way. My first symptom was my left arm was swollen. After several tests and lymph node removal, I had quite the shock at the follow-up appointment with the surgeon. I was expecting cat scratch fever or some other infection. I was not expecting to hear those feared words, “You have cancer.” But we didn’t know what kind…

The doctor asked if I had brought anyone with me. No, my husband is out of town and my family are in another state. I knew I had the right surgeon when I saw the look of compassion as he asked, “we’ve just told this and you’re going home to be alone?” My reply, “Don’t worry, there’s a liquor store on the way. Plus, what are phones for but reaching out to people.” I use humor when dealing with tough situations, I always have.

It took several weeks and more tests before we finally found the tumor. It wasn’t that big, only 1.6 cm. I met with an oncologist and one of my questions was “Will I lose my hair?” Yes. That’s when I started crying in her office. My hair went all the way to my butt. Losing one’s hair is one of the traumatic things about chemotherapy.

After the pathology came back, it seemed like the bad news just kept coming. All 21 lymph nodes removed were cancerous, which made me a Stage IIIC. And I was triple-negative, a more aggressive form. OMG, will I survive? My oncologist gave me odds of 50%, but I figured someone has to be on the good side of those odds, so why not me? It’s at this point you start worrying and then planning. I started hoping for the best but doing what I could to plan for the worse. I finally got my will, living will and medical directives all in order.

I had what I call three weapons in my fight against the cancer: the doctors, prayer and humor. I even shared my humor with my doctors. When I went to the second doctor, I made up a card that read “Congratulations, You’re the next contestant on Stump the Doctors.” The morning of my mastectomy I handed the surgeon a humorous note. I feel if you’re not laughing you’ll just cry and laughing is more fun.

The day I heard “You have cancer” was August 13, 2003. I was only 40 years old. I am still here and still cancer-free. I made it through chemo and radiation. Do I still worry? Sure! But I don’t think about it everyday and am doing my best to move forward.