Jessica Zervos

Survivor

Silver Linings

April of 2020, 6 weeks after my second child, I felt a lump. My doctors told me it was milk, and not to worry. Fast forward 9 months my lump had turned in a mass. I was diagnosed Dec 2020 at age 34 stage 2 TNBC (triple negative breast cancer). I started my 20 week journey of chemotherapy in January 2021 along with immunotherapy therapy. Along with the pandemic and taking care of a baby and a 3 year old. Double mastectomy with expanders in July 2021 swap to implants November 2021 . Luckily after surgery they found no lymph node involvement therefor they didn’t see the need for radiation. Which to me is bitter sweet. 

There is no perfect time to have a cancer diagnosis but for me during a pandemic was what seemed to be the perfect time. I tried to find the silver linings in EVERYTHING. That’s what helped me get through it. Also the fact that I had to for my girls. Prior to this I worked at a hair salon for years, then they shut down due to the world in March 2020 then baby then diagnosis. It all just snowballed. 

For me, there was no time to break down, just hit the ground running . Which can be a bad thing. But I guess it’s my way of shielding everyone else from worry. I am thankful every day to be on the other side of this and currently thriving, because there are so many people who are starting their journey, some who have fought all they could fight, and some who will be fighting for the rest of their life. The thought of reoccurrence is a daily thought, but then I bring myself back to the positive, the here and now. It’s not easy but like I keep saying , silver linings.