Judy Yardley of Ellington had a mastectomy on her 48th birthday. It seemed like the worst gift every. However, surgery was part of what it took to save her life -- in retrospect, gifting doesn't get any better than that.
Yardley was diagnosed with Stage III triple negative breast cancer in February 2016. Her type of cancer is known to be extremely aggressive, therefore the treatment had to be equally aggressive.
A health care worker, Yardley faithfully did routine self-examinations, and that is how she found the lump on her left breast. She didn't waste any time making an appointment for a mammogram to get it checked out.
"Driving back home the day I found out the results, of course I cried," she says. She called her boss, Sandra Morton, and the two of them cried together.
However, it is not within Yardley's nature to allow anything to keep her spirits low. A Christian, Yardley credits her faith in God as her source of help for dealing with life's hardships and challenge.
"What gets me through everything is knowing that God is in control, and that He has a purpose in whatever He allows to happen to us," she says, adding that it didn't take her long to become convinced that she knew what that purpose was.
One of the people who had influenced Yardley in her beliefs was her stepmom, Sally Ringstaff. Ironically, at the same time Yardley was finding out she had cancer, Sally was battling terminal renal cell carcinoma. Yardley says having a daughter with cancer "shifted Mom's focus from being depressed and worried about her own illness to helping me deal with mine. She was always the type of person who put her family first, and their needs ahead of her own."
Yardley no longer felt cancer was just something horrible that happened to them.
Instead, it became an experience they shared and through which they found a common goal -- to fight. She remembers, "We sort of bolstered each other's courage."
Yardley's left mastectomy also included the removal of two lymph nodes under her arm, to help prevent any possible remaining cancer cells from spreading.
"Thankfully they were benign," she says.
She had a port installed and her chemotherapy treatment (of a type commonly known as "Red Devil" because of its intensity) began in April, as soon as she had sufficiently recovered from surgery.
"The chemotherapy actually didn't make me sick, which my oncologist told me is extremely rare. However, it threw me into menopause. Instead of losing weight, as most women do because they can't eat, I gained weight," she says.
Because her blood count was low, she was also prescribed Lunesta. The pain from this drug was debilitating, she remembers.
"That was the worst part for me. After the injections all of my bones would ache so badly that I couldn't walk. Even my teeth hurt," she says.
She missed a day of work every other week for her cancer treatments and another when she needed it to recover from the Lunesta.
"I just made myself keep going, even though some days I had to lay my head on my desk. I worked in home health, and no one else knew how to do my job. I would think about Sandy, and how much of a struggle it would be for her to try to do everything herself, and I'd just make myself go in," she says.
Morton says, "I could see how rough it was for her. I felt helpless."
The worst part of Yardley's struggle came near the end, with the loss of her stepmom. Sally put up a valiant fight, but the cancer prevailed a month after Yardley finished her final treatment.
"What my mom went through was horrible, and I wondered, 'will that happen to me, too?'" Yardley recalls.
But having watched cancer take its toll, she says, "I was so blessed."
Yardley became more determined to push through and do everything she was able to do.
She especially resolved not to miss any quality family time.
"My family was my support system. My husband, Gusher, was wonderful. He did laundry, cooked and did dishes, even though he worked a full-time job. I had two grandchildren at that time, and they kept me upbeat, especially when one of them would tell me, 'I'm praying for you, Mimi,'" Yardley says.
She remembers on a trip to Branson (then) 4-year-old Dana was tired of walking and wanted to be carried.
"I told her I just couldn't, that I wasn't strong enough and she would have to walk. I was bald-headed at the time, and she suddenly said, 'I understand, Mimi. But, when your hair grows back in, you will be strong like Samson.' I laughed, but it actually happened that way. By the time my hair grew back, I was getting stronger," she says.
Still, there are residual effects of the treatment that may be permanent. Yardley continues to have a lot of body pain, particularly in the shoulders, and the treatment caused her eyesight to weaken. She tires more easily.
However, she recently celebrated a major victory, when her lab work qualified her to be able to have check-ups every six months instead of every three.
"Because of the type of cancer I have, if I can pass the five-year-mark, I will be considered to be in the clear," she says.
Two years after her diagnosis, Yardley is confident about her future. She had her port removed, even though her doctor cautioned her to wait a little longer.
"I told him I'm not getting cancer again, I'm done with it," she says.