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Beautiful YOU 2014 | Laura Gordillo Photography| Phoenix Arizona Photographer

29 Thursday May 2014

Posted by lgordillophotoblog in AZ, Beautiful YOU!, Breast Cancer Awareness, Buckeye, Buckeye, cancer, El Paso, goodyear, Phoenix, Phoenix, Photography, scottsdale, Tempe, TX

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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,

Beautiful YOU 2014, phoenix, AZ, photographer, cancer survivor,

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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.

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Beautiful YOU 2014 | Laura Gordillo Photography| Phoenix Arizona Photographer

02 Friday May 2014

Posted by lgordillophotoblog in AZ, AZ, Beautiful YOU!, Breast Cancer Awareness, Buckeye, cancer, El Paso, goodyear, Phoenix, Phoenix, Photography, scottsdale, Tempe, TX

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arizona, avondale, breast cancer, cancer, cancer sucks, chandler, El Paso, gilbert, glendale, goodyear, litchfield park, palm valley, peoria, Pet Scan, phoenix, photographers, photojournalistic, professional, scottsdale, sentinel node biopsy, surprise, survivor, tempe, texas

Meet ANGELA! A truly amazing lady! She had been emailing Desiree before the session telling her how nervous she was and she didn’t know what to wear! Desiree told her not to worry about anything that we would take care of it! Desiree knew Angela had had a tough year and just wanted her to feel comfortable! I remember her coming in very shy and timid! I have to give a HUGE shout out to TheBoyz DoHair  and Chik A’la Mode for giving her a new do’ and look! She became an absolutely different person when they cut and styled her hair. She seemed so much more confident and brightened up so much! I was delighted to see her so happy and smiling away! Please scroll down and read her story below 🙂

 

Beautiful YOU, Phoenix, AZ, Cancer, Warriors

Beautiful YOU, Phoenix, AZ, Cancer, Warriors

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My name is Angela Harris, and I was diagnosed with Triple Negative breast cancer on September 14, 2012 while I was pregnant with my third child. I was 38 years old at the time of diagnosis and my daughter, Courtney, was 4 years old, and my son, Rocky, Jr. (we call him Li’l Rock), was 19 months old at the time.

The first of several surgeries was performed on September 28, 2012. I was pregnant at the time of diagnosis, so they could not perform a sentinel node biopsy, so we didn’t really know exactly what stage my cancer was in until after the birth of my son on November 9, 2012. The lump when found on September 14, 2012 was 2.4 cm. When the lump was removed on September 27, 2012 it was 2.9 cm.

I started my chemotherapy treatments on October 23, 2012 while I was pregnant. I gave birth to a happy, healthy beautiful baby boy, Mason on November 9, 2012. The doctors induced me a month early so that I would not be so weak for my second chemo treatment on November 27, 2012 or for the upcoming surgeries. On November 19, 2012, I had my second surgery to perform the sentinel node biopsy and remove any suspicious lymph nodes, install the chemo port above my left breast and to remove more tissue from my right breast. As it turns out, 2 lymph nodes were found enlarged and positive for cancer. At this point, the oncologist had informed me that I was Stage 2b, but closer to a Stage 3.

A few months prior to my diagnosis, I had started a new job which I lost as a result of having cancer. I had just bought a new car two weeks prior, which I also lost since I was no longer employed. To add insult to injury, not only were we evicted from our apartment, but the father of my 3 children decided to go a separate way, so the kids and I moved in to my parent’s house, where my caregiver is my 70 year old mother.

I have a really high chance of recurrence within the first 3 years. I still have debilitating bone pain and neuropathy in both arms and legs that prevent me from being able to maintain employment. I have already made it past 1 year, so if I can make it past the next 2 years, then there’s a good chance that the cancer will not recur. I have everything to live for – I have 3 beautiful Angels to enjoy life with and I intend to do so. Thank you for taking time to read my story.

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