On March 9, 2018 I received devastating news that I had breast cancer. At the time we did not know how far along and still needed further testing.I couldn't grasp it as I am 29 years old. So after testing and based on the size of the tumor and it getting to my lymph node area I was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma stage 3 but the prognosis was looking really good due to genetics testing coming back negative. We just knew that it was going to be a long journey ahead. My name is Rachel Bisaillon and I’m a mother of a 2 1/2-year-old daughter named Addison and she is the light of my life and I fight extra hard for her everyday. I live in Northwest Indiana and get my treatment locally but all of my surgeries will be in Chicago.
In the beginning I had to have four rounds of the highest dose of chemo possible, I knew my hair would go. Just wasn't sure at what point. But after my second dose my hair really started fall out in chunks and I was very upset. I knew what needed to be done and wasn't thrilled about it but one of my best friends and her boyfriend offered to do a private session for me at his work to go ahead and shave it all off.
So that morning I walked in with my head held high and I started to cry at first but then I made the first cut, and when I did I all of a sudden felt empowered and said, "I'm Britney b****" all three of us just looked at each other and could not stop laughing. It was nice to find the light in a very sad situation.
And once I started to wear my wig and got comfortable enough, I would go over to my mom's house to visit and if I walked in the door and was hot, I would just take my hair off and we would start laughing about how convenient it is to just get rid of your hair when you don't feel like wearing it! I like to still joke about having no hair even still and always find ways to giggle about it/ i.e singing Sinead O'Connor songs and rubbing my head.
So it doesn't make me sad! And on a good note, its slowly coming back now!