Jamie Weaver

After months of searching, my family and I family found the 20 wooded acres on Grand Lake that I'd envisioned all along. We purchased the land and moved from the Oklahoma panhandle. I took a job as an English instructor at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College in Miami. And two of my uncles began helping my husband and I build the house I've always wanted, complete with a front porch swing.

Then I found the lump in my right breast.

The semester was ending; my students had tests. So, I put off going to the doctor for a month. But at the end of May 2005, I went in, and a mammogram revealed cancer.

I really should have known something was wrong long before then. Even before we moved, I'd started to tire easily. I was sick a lot. I didn't think much about it at the time, but I'd been getting weaker and weaker and often complained I felt like I was 90, even though I was in my early 40s. It was taxing even to lift my arm up to brush hair back from my face.

My physician recommended I go to Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) in Tulsa for treatment. He said his sister-in-law had been treated at CTCA and been very satisfied. I thought that sounded like a good idea.

At CTCA, my biopsy confirmed breast cancer. I remember feeling sick to my stomach at the news and had a passing thought that I was going to die. But then, bolstered by family support and my own faith in God, I decided there was no point in crying, I just needed to do whatever it took to get through it.

My first husband died of lung cancer a number of years after we divorced, and that really impacted me as to my own mortality. I thought then that the same thing could happen to me, and I began focusing on whats important -- family, God, spending time in meaningful ways. I know it might sound trite, but all the money in the world can't guarantee you'll survive cancer. It's just not what's important. I'm glad I have a job and enough money to help pay bills, but it's my husband, four children, five grandchildren and extended family who are important to me. It's God and all He's done for me that makes me grateful for my life.

Within a week of my biopsy, I was back at CTCA for a partial mastectomy. The cancer hadn't spread to my lymph nodes, so when Dr. Petra Ketterl, my medical oncologist, presented me with a treatment plan, I opted to undergo six weeks of radiation and then follow-up for five years with the drug Tamoxifen. I appreciated the fact that at CTCA, patients are presented with all the options and empowered to make our own decisions.

I'd done a lot of research on my own. Chemotherapy is so intense, and I had my family, a new home, and a life I wanted to get on with, so I chose not to do chemo.

While at CTCA, I was also thankful for the way physicians took a personal interest in me, making phone calls to me themselves rather than have their nurses contact me. I appreciated prayer with Chaplain Ron Suarez before my surgery and the talks with him on spiritual issues when I was in the facility for radiation treatments.

I gave my life to Christ when I was 12 years old. And, I'm so thankful I've had a relationship with Him all these years. If I hadn't had God in my life when I got that cancer diagnosis, I don't know where I'd be today. Cancer's really a life-changer. And it doesn't just affect the individual; it affects the whole family. I thought it'd be this simple thing, like going in for an operation and then I'd be back to normal after a six-week recovery period. But the effects of cancer are long term. There are still days when I feel exhausted, and it's been three years.

I come from a long line of strong women, women who can handle adversity. And I'm a strong believer in the power of prayer. A lot has happened in my life, and I feel like God has been with me through all of it, no matter what. Having cancer was no different.

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