My Skin is My Own Again

Shaneé Laurent discusses her struggle with breast cancer

I never expected to have breast cancer. There’s no history of the disease in my family and I’ve always lived a pretty healthy lifestyle. I never broke a bone. I had a natural child birth. I do yoga. I eat kale. Growing up, most of the women I knew with breast cancer were older. I was 33 when a surgeon I’d only met a week prior broke the news to me over the phone. I was on a 30-mile drive home with my 23-month-old daughter. I don’t remember much about that drive, except that I called my family crying. This is why you’re supposed to go to the doctor’s office for that kind of news. I went through a biopsy, surgery, chemo, surgery, chemo, surgery, radiation, c-diff, and surgery while many of my friends were welcoming babies into their families. I surrendered my early thirties and spent them killing something inside me that had no explainable origin.

Photo by: Tyler Steimle at Ghost Code Studios