Monday. September 22, 2025. It’s been nearly 7 years since my first blog post. Seven years! So much has changed since those days leading up to October 3, 2018 when it was confirmed I had cancer again after a 19-year stay.
The diagnosis was poorly differentiated carcinoma. At the first meeting with an oncologist on October 12, 2018, I asked him to define poorly differentiated carcinoma. This was his analogy.
Ten pathologists look at a biopsy of well differentiated carcinoma. All ten determine it is breast cancer.
The same ten pathologists look at a biopsy of mildly differentiated carcinoma and 5 determine it is breast cancer and the other 5 don’t know what kind of cancer it is.
The same ten pathologists look at a biopsy of poorly differentiated carcinoma and none of them can tell what kind of cancer it is.
This clearly wasn’t the cancer I had come to know in late 1999.
Not surprisingly I’ve been feeling introspective about all my experiences over the last seven years and the months leading up to cancer’s return. In an instant life went from being about what I needed to get done that day and planning for the future, to finding myself very present in each and every moment as it was happening. On that day in October the world came so clearly into focus and all my “someday” daydreams disappeared.
Below is a snapshot retrospective of my life a few months before I was aware cancer was back, and the years that have followed. There have been painful losses along the way…family, friends, pets. However, many of these photos remind me that in spite of my diagnosis, there are a lot of precious moments to enjoy and treasure.
lana has cancer 