Life in the deRosier household was good in early 2024. If you look through the scrapbook album, you see Trevor's admission to his top choice for college, a fun celebration for my 52nd birthday, our trip to Texas Hill Country, Brayden's adoption, the Highest Honors ceremony... and then a blank space, followed by all of Trevor's end-of-senior-year festivities and graduation.
The blank space represents my cancer diagnosis.
I thought for a long time about how I would include that in the album. I wanted a stark, black page that would represent how the diagnosis was abrupt and unexpected, out of place in our otherwise happy lives. This is what I came up with:
It's not quite as stark as I'd originally planned. I used the title of Invasive Ductal Carcinoma instead of just CANCER. There's a lot of journaling. The pop of pink is for hope.
It's been two years and four months since my breast cancer surgery. I finished radiation just over two years ago. I graduated from in-person physical therapy 16 months ago. I have eight more years of endocrine therapy ahead and the lymphedema is still here; I'm not happy about either of those, but it is what it is. Overall, I'm doing well and at this point there is no evidence of disease (NED). I hope it stays that way and that I never have to make another layout like this one.
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