Kathy Revenew, A Real Woman With A Real Issue

My New Set of Glasses

Cancer Survior

I was asked once,“How has breast cancer changed you? My first response was to say quickly” well, let me count the ways”. Then I paused and thought wow how has cancer changed me? Some changes have been subtle, and some not so subtle, I mean really how subtle can losing a breast be!! I was soon to learn that the physical changes were small in view of what happened inside of me.

I am convinced in the cancer cocktail you are given there is what I now call “clarity juice” to help see the world in a new way. Along with a reconstructed breast after a mastectomy, I also feel like cancer gave me a new set of glasses. After a breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and today still living with the repercussions quite frankly, I no longer see the world in the same way.

My story began in December of 2004 when I heard the words you have invasive breast cancer. “What, I thought, there must be a mistake!” I was happily married, a mother of three children, had a great job and I believed way too healthy to be diagnosed with breast cancer. Why I was 47 and could still touch my toes and stand on my head in yoga class. I soon learned that cancer has no rhyme or reason, it plays no favorites, it just is. I may be a little like those of you reading this story, for I am not famous, nor have I ever done anything that might be considered extraordinary, I am much more ordinary than that. I am more like the lady who might be behind you in the grocery store line or the one who cut you off in traffic this morning. I am guessing if you are reading this story you have heard the dreaded words “you have cancer” or this deadly disease is touching your wife, mother, sister or friend. This story is about not only the changes of my chest, but also more importantly what my chest holds, my heart and soul.

You Can Read Kathy's Full Story of Surviving Cancer In
The June, 2009 Issue of The Root Of A Woman Christian Magazine