Tags
arizona, avondale, breast cancer, cancer, chandler, El Paso, gilbert, glendale, goodyear, litchfield park, palm valley, peoria, phoenix, photographers, photojournalistic, professional, scottsdale, surprise, tempe, texas
Meet beautiful Tiffany! I was so glad she was able to attend our Beautiful YOU event because she was hurting pretty bad ! You see she suffers from stage 4 breast cancer and poor thing was not feeling well at all! But she made it and enjoyed the event very much! She was so grateful and appreciated everyone who participated in the event! I had the pleasure to meet her daughter Ezri. She is as beautiful as her mama! She made her mom a beautiful heart necklace and Tiffany wore it for a few of the images I took! We also took a few mother & daughter pics and I LOVE how they turned out! Please scroll down to read more of this gorgeous lady’s story! The true definition of a WARRIOR!
Hair by: TheBoyz DoHair
Makeup by : Adriana Garcia
Beautiful YOU 2014, phoenix, AZ, photographer, cancer survivor,
Tiffany was first diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2004, at the age of 37, after a routine doctor’s visit found a lump. She was scheduled for surgery on July 5th 2004 and discovered the week before her scheduled surgery that she was pregnant with her daughter Ezri. She had to proceed with the surgery to remove the cancer for her own health, but the doctors were very concerned about doing surgery while she was so newly pregnant. She opted not to go through Chemotherapy during her pregnancy because she did not want to risk exposure to her unborn daughter. Doctors told her chemo can be done in the second trimester safely, but it wasn’t worth the risk in Tiffany’s mind. She and her partner had been trying for several years to get pregnant and Tiffany was just told a week before she found out she was pregnant that she would never be able to have a child due to the cancer’s dependence on estrogen and progesterone to survive.
Ezri was born in February 2005 and was a healthy baby! Ezri has had no health issues!! Tiffany was able to breast feed for 3 months and then had to take an estrogen blocking medication for 5 years to help prevent the cancer from re-occurring.
Tiffany celebrated her 5 year “cancer free” mark in July 2009 when she was told by her doctor that after 5 years with no signs of cancer that she was considered “cured”. Little did she or her family know that the cancer was likely already making a home in her bones. Her oncologist at the time failed to mention to her that the tumor markers, which were still technically in a “normal” range, had increased from the previous year.
In the fall of 2010, she saw her oncologist and got a clean bill of health, even though the oncologist did not run any tests at that appointment. Tiffany had also learned in the fall that her partner of 10 years had been cheating on her. He left her for the other woman after a few months of appearing to try to work things out. Tiffany scheduled an appointment with her PCP for check-up due to all the stress she had been under. She asked her PCP to run the cancer marker blood tests since her oncologist had not done them. The news was not good. Her cancer markers were very elevated. She was scheduled for a PET/CT scan in February 2011 only to find out the cancer was back and was in multiple locations throughout her bones. Her oncologist gave her a very poor prognosis after seeing the PET scan results. She fired her oncologist and turned to her family to help her find another oncologist. Tiffany’s brother, Tom, located the Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) and her parents immediately rushed over to talk about her cancer care. Tiffany started a very aggressive chemotherapy regimen with her doctor’s at CTCA to try to put the metastatic breast cancer into remission. The doctors say there is no such thing as a “cure” when talking about stage 4 cancer, only remission. Her bones are more brittle from the cancer & chemotherapy’s, so Tiffany has to limit her physical activities and be cautious with even normal activities. She almost reached complete remission, but then the mediations stopped working and she tried a new medication in October 2013. She had radiation in November of 2013 as well. As of her last scan, these medications are not working and she will have to try another medication regimen and perhaps more radiation. The medications and treatments cause fatigue, extreme joint pain, and other symptoms which have limited her ability to care for herself, her home, and her daughter. She has been unable to work since her diagnosis in 2011. Her family & Singleton Mom’s have been there the whole time to support her and help with her needs.
