It was July 1998.
I was 23 years old.
I had been having pain and discomfort in my abdomen for months, but the doctors in upstate New York kept telling me I probably had a cyst and that “it would go away” and “not to worry about it”.
When I moved back to Long Island, I found a new doctor and during his first examination of my belly, he ordered for me to have a biopsy of the mass in my abdomen.
I told him “everyone said it’s just a cyst”.
He looked at me and said, “that’s no cyst. It’s way too hard to be a cyst. It’s a tumor”.
Yeah, he was blatant like that.
But he explained that it was likely to be benign and should be removed anyway just to relieve my discomfort, after which the mass would be biopsied, just to be sure. Ok, no problem.
So we scheduled the surgery and I thought nothing of it. I mean, I was just 23 years-old. I’d had cysts before, a few of which had ruptured causing terrible pain. So this was no biggie.
That was until a few days after the procedure when the doctor called me into his office for the test results. The discussion went something like this:
Dr.: “Irene, you have cancer.”
Me: “Uh, what?”Dr.: “You have Stage 1 ovarian cancer, although I think we got it all.”
Me: “I’m sorry. I thought you just said I have cancer.”
Dr.: “Yes. I’m sorry. I know that is scary but you were very lucky. It was discovered very early and I think by removing the tumor, we most likely got all of it since I did not see and more masses anywhere.”
I just blinked at him, still not understanding what he was saying to me.
The doctor stood directly in front of me, grabbed my shoulders and said, “Irene. You have cancer. But it’s okay. It’s not a death sentence. You will be okay if you do exactly what I tell you to do.”
It took him a few more times before I could finally comprehend what he told me.
I was breathing again.
To say I was terrified was an understatement.
I heard cancer and immediately thought of all the things I never got to do. I thought my life was over and all I could imagine were all the things I missed in life: I’d never travel, get married, or finish college. I was going to die and I had barely started living yet.
The idea of going through chemotherapy after having had surgery and dealing with it all on my own was more than I could handle.
I became a bitchy, nasty mess. I told no one of my diagnosis. I just wallowed in my own misery. I became a terrible person.
A few months later, I was back to my old self.
My point?
I was lucky.
It wasn’t until I changed doctors until I finally found someone who would take my complaints seriously enough to test me. Sometimes, that’s what we have to do.
Because I was so vigilant, I was able to be diagnosed, treated, and healed with no additional signs of cancer 13 years later.
I am relatively healthy, strong, and living a very full life.
Do not be afraid to challenge your doctors.
Do not accept an answer that doesn’t make sense. Follow your instincts and listen to your gut.
If something is wrong, you are probably right. You know your body better than anyone else.
And sometimes you have to fight for it.
Irene is a favorite of mine and I tremendously appreciate her sharing her experience here. She blogs at House of Robertson.
In the spirit of kicking much booty and putting in the work to claim the body transformation you thirst for, welcome Shaun T’s Insanity Fast And Furious. I partnered with Yahoo! Shine as a Yahoo! 
drive really far (on my lunch break, at that) and the store doesn’t have the damn Bars. Attune Chocolate is highly delicious and probiotically beneficial. I’ve been wanting another taste for close to a year now, but I’m done searching high and low, and racking up vehicle mileage in an expedition to find this elusive bionic chocolate bar. Yes, you can 
She’s getting older, isn’t she? Greedy Baby is 3 now. I started blogging when she was only 12-weeks-old. And it seems like just yesterday 
There’s no baking involved and it’s literally ready in minutes. I constructed my cake within a wine glass, because I’m fancy like that. I can sense that you’re the fancy type, too.
There are only 3 ingredients:
Construct your cake within the glass by layering the 3 ingredients in this order:
The final product delivers moist, spongy cubes of Angel Food decadence accented by fresh berries and yogurt that mimics a real, high calorie Strawberry Shortcake. The ingredients are a heavenly trio that were meant to be together. The greedy side of your brain will think you’re snacking on a sinister no-no, but a generous portion of So Delicious Strawberry Shortcake with its healthy benefits will only run you an estimated 300 calories.
(I’d pick big, heart-shaped muscles over skinny any day.)
Amy’s Chocolate Cake: If you happen to be hanging around the grocery checkout line this week, go on and snag yourself the January 6th issue of Woman’s World Magazine (the one with Dr. Oz on the cover). Why? Because they’re talking about treats for health-conscious peeps, featuring my greedy opinion on Amy’s Organic Chocolate Cake on page 45. I first told you about Amy’s this past September in 
click image to enlarge for your eyeballs
…and I couldn’t help but to be inspired by that big azz SparkPeople ad on the right side of the page. Do you see where it says “This is YOUR year!” …I do agree. This IS your year. You bettah grab 2012 by the horns and make it your bitch.