A quick recap of my journey with cancer diagnosis:

#1 – While pregnant with Brody, I lost my voice November 2013.  Was told it wasn’t concerning from an ENT and didn’t “look like cancer.”  There would be more harm to the baby to operate so decided to wait until Brody was born March 7, 2014 to schedule surgery.  In the mean time, I couldn’t work (teacher) because I had absolutely NO voice.  Taught my oldest son sign language at 18 months since he was non-verbal and well so was I.  He learned over 80 words in sign language and actually still to this day he still gets speech therapy due to his speech delay.  Exactly 3 weeks after having Brody, I have surgery and it WAS CANCER.  Laryngeal Cancer.  So I had another surgery and it was “gone.”  Yay I was in remission!”  I would continue going to all of my follow up doctor appointments and scans and was clear!  Then I get pregnant again with Natalie and my office visits increased so I could be scoped more frequently just to keep an eye on me.  I felt great about that AND the fact everything always looked perfect. 

#2 – Natalie was born October 15, 2015 and by November 2015 my voice was starting to go.  I called my ENT to move my appointment up and something looked suspicious.  So, I was scheduled for surgery.  Results came back and it was cancer….again….but this time Stage 2 invasive.  So I was transferred to another ENT, who then decided based on my age and the rarity of this cancer my journey to the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona began.  There I had 60% of my vocal cords removed and a left neck dissection since some lymph nodes were affected.  The doctor decided to not do the right neck dissection because based on the lymph nodes he removed, I should be good as this cancer doesn’t typically cross the midline.  

#3 – May 2016 PET scan results came back and guess what?!  The cancer crossed the midline!  Now in lymph nodes on the right side of my neck.  So this time I had a right neck dissection at Penn and then was sent to Johns Hopkins for radiation the summer of 2016.  Since then all my scans have been NED (No Evidence of Disease), and I have been in remission.  I went from every 3 month scans to every 6 months and its been about 2.5 years UNTIL…

#4 – March/April 2019.