Meet Lora
Hey, I’m Lora Iossi. I’m a wife and have been married to my husband, Ryan for nearly 20 years this year (2022) and I get to be a mom to my beautiful 17-year-old daughter Faith.
My cancer journey started nearly 10 years ago in November 2012 at age 39 when I was diagnosed with Stage 2B invasive ductal carcinoma. When I was diagnosed I just wanted to find the quickest path to get the cancer out of me and move on with life as if it never happened. I decided to get a double mastectomy because my risk for recurrence would be nearly none. No guarantees, but I was optimistic. Fortunately, I did not have lymph node involvement so I did not have radiation. I had chemo and then reconstruction. I was “done” in less than a year. We’ll talk more about “done” in future posts.
Fast forward to 2017, I started feeling pain in my armpit area which turned to a shooting pain in my arm. Ladies and gents, I was super naive. It never occurred to me that my cancer would come back. After all, I got a double mastectomy! I was utterly shocked when I heard Breast Cancer is back! I will never forget hearing the next words. Stage 4 - chronic life long. Wait, hold on! Yep, I heard right.
In August 2022, it will be five years since my second diagnosis and nearly ten from my first. Today, I live with no evidence of my disease and I am grateful! There is so much to share about this nearly 10 year journey.
