This is Brooke's story about her battle with breast cancer. I hope this story will in some way help someone who has breast cancer, or who has been connected to it in some way through a loved one.. This story reveals the ugly truth that breast cancer shows no mercy and does not age discriminate. Even though this story ends in tragedy, it is the story of a miracle all the same. We don't understand death or why it happens to someone so young, but nonetheless, it was God's plan. Actually, we believe there were a series of miracles in this story, all coming together to fulfill God's plan..
Please click on the page numbers at the end of this story to see a photo time line of Brooke's life.
Brooke and her father had not been communicating since she was about 15 years old. She lived with her mother, who was ill with failing kidneys and was on dialysis. They moved a lot, and because of Brooke having to take care of her mother, go to school and work part time, she didn't have much time or thought for her father who lived on the other side of the state, and then eventually he moved to Florida. They lost touch completely, and sometime in 1995 when Brooke was 24 years old, the first miracle happened.
Brooke's father had just purchased WebTv, an internet browser and e-mail service, and I had a computer with internet service and e-mail. One night while checking our e-mail, there was one special e-mail. It asked if this was the same man who used to live in North Carolina, and gave some other personal details that only Brooke could know. We answered the e-mail, and a new relationship began with Brooke and her father. Brooke arranged to visit us in Florida that August, in time for her father's birthday. It was a wonderful reunion and we had a very special visit that week with Brooke. We continued to communicate via e-mail, and Brooke visited us a few more times over the next few years.
Another strange twist happened in 1999. Brooke was corresponding with a man over the internet whom she met in a game room playing spades. She had separated from her husband just a few months prior. They started making phone calls as well as chatting on the internet, and decided to meet. It turned out that this man lived in Florida also, so Brooke planned a vacation to meet him and then come down to visit us. Well, as the old saying goes, it was love at first sight.
Here is the second miracle: Brooke had been told by several doctors, since she was a teenager, that she would probably never be able to have a child. Brooke had been diagnosed with epilepsy when she was about 5 years old, and had been on anti-seizure medication since. The medication and the epilepsy made it difficult for her to conceive. Prior to meeting James, Brooke had been married to another man for about 3 years and had not used any kind of birth control, and had not been able to conceive, so she was pretty sure she could not get pregnant. So, Brooke and James took no precautions as there didn't seem to be any reason for it. Brooke and James continued to see each other as their schedules would allow, and sometime in December 1999 she conceived. Even though the circumstances were not quite what she expected, Brooke was ecstatic, because she never thought she could have a baby. She had just mentioned to me a few months earlier, that if she could not get pregnant before she was 30 years old, she was going to give up any hope of ever having a child. (Please don't judge her as if she were deliberately trying to get pregnant, because she wasn't. We truely believe that this was a miracle of God to give her the child she thought she could never have).
Miracle #3 : Brooke was only 29 years old when she found out she was pregnant, and then she was diagnosed with breast cancer approximately 3 months later. In fact, if Brooke had not become pregnant, she may not have been diagnosed in time to even have the little time she had left in this world. The doctor told her that the increase in her hormone level from the pregnancy was feeding the cancer and made it possible to diagnose.
Because of her young age, and no known history of breast cancer in her familiy, Brooke had never had a mammogram.
At first they wanted to do an emergency mastectomy, but after consultations between the OB-GYN and the Oncologist, it was determined they should wait until after the baby was born. Brooke began aggressive chemotherapy treatments to shrink the tumors in her breast and to keep the cancer from spreading while she was pregnant.
Fourth miracle: The baby wasn't due until September, but Brooke was afraid that the chemo might cause damage to him, so she decided to stop chemo treatments. The doctor was against this, but after several discussions, Brooke convinced him
to induce her labor 6 weeks prematurely. She was willing to risk her life to make sure she gave birth to a healthy baby boy.
After the baby was born, August 1, 2000, she started chemo therapy again and then had a radical mastectomy. After massive doses of radiation and chemo, she seemed to be cancer free for almost a year. Brooke's mother died in January 2001, and Brooke finally seemed to have a life of her own. The baby's father moved to North Carolina to be with her and the baby. Then , sometime in 2002, the cancer came back in her lymph nodes and started spreading to her liver and lungs. She started having blood clots in her lungs and had to go on blood thinning medication and steroids. Chemo therapy continued with different mixes which seemed to keep the cancer at bay, but then in November 2003, they also found a tumor in her brain. Brooke was told that she could not do chemo on the lungs and radiation on the brain at the same time. She wanted them to operate and
take out the brain tumor so she could continue with the chemo on the liver and lungs, but was told that wasn't an option. The cancer had spread to the point that there was nothing more to be done except to keep Brooke comfortable until the end. She had trouble breathing because of fluid on the lungs and a drain tube had to be inserted to drain off the fluid. Brooke was only 32 years old, and had been in the hospital about 2 weeks before she passed away. Her cause of death
was respiratory failure due to metastatic breast cancer. She was kept on morphine and Ativan so she did not suffer and left this world peacefully.
So, what was God's plan in all this you ask? It was to reunite Brooke and her father so they could have a good father-daughter relationship for the last few years of her life; to give her the child she thought she could never have which gave her the strength to fight this awful disease, and also filled an emptiness in her life and gave her some joy. It was to give her father the only grandchild he would ever have.
Brooke's eyes were donated, and two people now have sight. Brooke also donated her hair when she started chemo therapy to an organization that make wigs for children who have lost their hair from cancer treatments.
Brooke was always talking about her breast cancer and urging all women to get mammograms. If there is a history of breast cancer, or any type of cancer in your family, please tell your doctor and request a mammogram.
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