04/03/2019 By Amber Ybanez
No one can ever prepare for a cancer diagnosis. Certainly not a 23-year-old new mom who was about to celebrate 5 years of marriage to her high school sweetheart.
Fear, anxiety, and heartbreak; these are just a few words to describe what I felt when I was told that cancer had been growing in my body without any warning. Just like any human would, I automatically thought the worst. I thought about being so sick I wouldn’t be around to watch my son grow. I thought about death and what my husband and child would do without me? I thought about my parents losing a child, which no parent should ever have to endure. What am I supposed to do now? How do I keep living my life normally?
Weeks went by and after I was poked and stabbed with every test the oncologist ordered, we had my full diagnosis; Stage IV Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma. A rare but curable form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Keyword — curable. That word was my tiny ray of light at the end of this dark tunnel. I then chose no matter how tiny my light was, I was gonna let it shine.
I choose life. I’m going to fight to the very end to make sure I’m there for my son’s first birthday, his first steps, my wedding anniversary, my sister’s college graduation. Everything that I was planning before, is still going to be my reality later. I’m choosing to smile through my treatments in hopes to show others that if I can do it, so can you.
Cancer will not take over me. I will conquer as a wife, as a mother, daughter, sister, and friend. I’m grateful for the life I’ve been given and I will live my life to its fullest extent.
GRYT is being diagnosed with Stage IV Lymphoma two months before your child’s first birthday.
GRYT is enduring chemo during your child’s first Christmas.
GRYT is still enjoying work because life doesn’t stop after cancer.
