Jackie's SILENT BATTLE with Breast Cancer

Hello Everyone! My name is Jackie Bradford and I have been PRIVATELY battling breast cancer since the beginning of February 2022. I am usually a very independent, personal, & private person! I am also a mother of three daughters - ages 23, 17, & 8. This has been A HUGE battle to go through & endure by myself! Now, there are a hand full of people that I did actually confide in. They have been VERY supportive & loving, THANK YOU ALL!!! God has shown me that He ALWAYS has a plan within a plan/within a plan. He has allowed many of our paths to cross for a reason, a season, and/or a lifetime. I have met SO MANY good genuine people in the last 10 + years. People that really care about me, my well-being, my family, & especially my health. So for this reason, I have decided to share my story of just how 2022 has been a VERY CHALLENGING year for me!

I found out about the indentation on the right side of my breast February 4, 2022 - and within 3 or 4 days, I knew it was an aggressive cancer and I ALREADY was given a treatment plan. DEEP SIGH... I cried for months! WOW, I was TERRIFIED of the diagnosis! I just did not even know how to register nor process this information, at all! I had just had my first mammogram like 10 months before then, NOTHING WAS THERE! But now, I have two masses & two lymph nodes in my armpit. The first eight weeks of chemotherapy was AWFUL!!! I started out with Adriamycin, it's known as "the red devil". I was EXTREMELY sick, down from Thursdays (treatment day) until Mondays. At one point, I thought I was dying - I had a really bad reaction from the chemo + fibroids. I had to get two blood transfusions, went to Lourdes outpatient for eight days, and my blood pressure was super low. I had endured ALL OF THIS, and it STILL had NOT registered in my brain - that I have cancer. After the third treatment, is when I REALLY REALIZED that I have cancer - my hair started to fall out RAPIDLY in the shower. I completely filled three Walmart bags of my hair. I cried until 5am, devastated! OMG, I HAVE CANCER!!! Then I had twelve weeks of Taxol chemotherapy - THANK GOD I wasn't sick from it like the red devil! I completed chemotherapy 7/21/2022! PRAISE JESUS!!! But unfortunately, I couldn't even be excited about this HUGE achievement, because my Father was sick and had been hospitalized since the middle of June. (You wouldn't even believe what all I was doing between chemo treatments!) I was driving back & forth to St Louis Missouri (where my father lived/was hospitalized) a couple times a week, coming back for treatments, Doordashing, doing grocery deliveries,cleaning Airbnb's, taking care of my family, and etc... Just TRYING to continue on/stay afloat, but steadily getting further behind on bills & in debt. You know, I just felt like I didn't have time for cancer! Life & obstacles did NOT stop coming , even though I'm sick with cancer & my father had been in the hospital for 50 days. My father's health was declining, I was concerned about the care he was/was NOT receiving, bills, my health/cancer, my mind frame, & etc... My Father passed away August 12, 2022 - one of my BIGGEST/MAIN supporters, and the first one in my family that I called after receiving my diagnosis. My sister & I were blessed to spend about 6 hours with him, before he took his last breath. He told me, "YOU GOT THIS-NO DOUBT." So, in the middle of this serious health challenge of my life, I had to plan my father's funeral & bury him to rest.

I just recently had surgery 10/4/2022-a mastectomy of my right breast & lymph nodes removed from my armpit. It's been VERY PAINFUL & UNCOMFORTABLE! I been down all week... I still have a couple more surgeries and 12 weeks of radiation Monday -Friday. I'm just not sure how long I will be down and not able to work. Each process has come with it's own individual battle! I just been LITERALLY taking it one day at a time!

I have the UPMOST RESPECT for EVERYONE that has endured and conquered cancer, and I KNOW it is MANY!!! THANK YOU to all my supporters, especially the ones GOD HAND PICKED, and THANK YOU for listening to my story! May God continue to lead, guide, and bless us all - IN JESUS NAME, AMEN!

.... By His stripes WE ARE HEALED... Isaiah 53:5