My Breast Cancer Journey - a Guest Blog Series by Savanna James (part 3 of 5 “After My Double Mastectomy")

 This is the third in a five-part guest blog series by Savanna James discussing her breast cancer journey. See the first installment here. I hope you'll read and share them all!

On February 10, 2020, I woke up calm and unafraid. I knew that my life would never be the same, but I had found my purpose - to share my story. And on that day, at 7am, I underwent my own double mastectomy and reconstruction at 24 years old. 

The surgery was a success...but it wasn’t over. 

What is harder to discuss, and what is rarely talked about, is the fact that when treatments end, your journey is just beginning. There is so much left in life that goes beyond a diagnosis, but, yet, is still so greatly affected by it. 

After the surgery, I was faced with the dark reality that my journey wasn’t finished just because I had completed the procedures. Every single moment for the rest of my life, I have to live with the constant reminder of what I went through and what I will continue to go through. This realization was probably the hardest part of the entire journey for me.

I mean, let’s get real here. I lost my boobs before I hit the age of 25. No, literally. I lost them. They scooped them out, as I like to say. Subsequently, I cannot feel them and certain parts of my chest and I will never be able to breastfeed my children. I look like I’ve been cut in half right and then sewn back together multiple times. It’s not pretty by any means and it’s definitely something that is hard to swallow when you’re in the middle of the pageant world or even just in young adulthood. 

For all cancer survivors, when treatments end, your journey is just beginning. There is so much left in this life that goes beyond a diagnosis, but, yet, is still affected by it. After treatment, a lot of young adults are left feeling less of an actual human, much less a young adult with a whole life ahead of them. Please understand that there are struggles beyond cancer treatment. Truly, have you thought about the effects on a person’s mental and physical health that exist outside of the cancer itself? 

There are so many and I won’t list all of them for you, for that in itself is impossible, but they include problems with heart disease, fertility issues, autoimmune diseases, body insecurities, financial struggles and PTSD. 

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I hope you'll come back next week for the fourth installment of her story.