Tristan’s Story

My name is Tristan.

I am 39 years old and a single mother to a 10-year-old little girl, who is my world. I felt a lump in my breast in October 2023. I thought it was a cyst, so I went to the doctor just to get checked out. That was the day my whole life changed, and ever since, I've been in this dizzying whirlwind of doctors, tests, treatments, surgeries, etc. My genetics testing came back clear (thankfully, since I was terrified of passing this horrible gene to my daughter). I am ER+/PR+/HER2-.

I chose to have a double mastectomy on December 20th, 2023. Just had my port placed, and chemo starts February 13th. My treatment plan is DD-AC-T. The DD means "dose-dense," so I will be doing the Red Devil every other week for 3 months, then the Taxol every week for 3 months. Unfortunately, 3 out of 3 lymph nodes were all positive for cancer as well, so after chemo, I will be having another surgery to remove those. Then radiation. They staged me at 2B.

I feel scared and anxious every day. It feels like I'm out of my own body and just watching this happen to someone else. I pray I'm strong enough to fight this. All I want is to live a long, healthy life and see my daughter grow up. She's my everything.

-Tristan