Cindy's journey with breast cancer.

2019 August - 2020 October

Created by Ronald 

Cindy’s journey with breast cancer started August 5th 2019 with a diagnosis of stage 2b breast cancer. September 17th 2019, she had the surgery to remove the cancer, which took several hours but went well, her surgeon Dr Christine Rizk at St Francis Hospital Women’s Center did a great job. She stated that she used the remaining tissue to save the breast.


After the surgery she had a limited amount of time to heal.

On October 21st 2019 she started Chemo Therapy, Throughout Chemo Cindy only had one adverse reaction (a rash on the back of both hands) a couple days of Benadryl and then continued the Chemo therapy. March 9th 2020 was her last dose. This girl is one tough Cookie. There were a few other bumps on the Chemo road for example sometimes the nurse would have trouble accessing her port and they had to use what we all called “roto Rooter” and away we go. Another issue she had was trouble keeping her magnesium up, so after a while they would just add a few bags to her treatment.
Time for another short break before 7 weeks of Monday thru Friday Radiation, (35 sessions).
This started on April 2nd 2020. Everything was going good then on my birthday April 16th she wakes up not feeling well, so we call the cancer center for guidance, she has several symptoms of Covid-19, now it’s time to find a testing site. We ended up going to the Smilow cancer center at Yale New Haven Hospital the next morning. She tested negative…… now back to the grind on Monday. This girl is a champ. Radiation is going well, redness of the affected breast, no big issues until a small bump on the Radiation road, what can best be described as a really bad sunburn, time for another short break. May 26th the finish line is in sight…… May 29th Cindy rings the bell “SHE IS FINISHED”.


All of Cindy’s follow-up appointments with all her doctors were good reports, everyone is happy with her progress, the only thing we were a little bit concerned with was her memory was a little off, but we all attributed this to Chemo-Brain (yes there is such a thing) we would keep an eye on it and see what happens.

Fast Forward to July 2nd she spent a few days in the hospital with a UTI / Sepsis, she was released on the 4th with a catheter and a few home visits from a nurse. A few visits and a trip to get the catheter out and she’s doing great.

Things are going good except her memory seems to be getting worse as time goes on, it got to a point I had to create a phone list of people she calls frequently (I’ve been at the same job for 18 years and she couldn’t remember the number). A few days before her follow-up with her Oncologist Dr Rabinowe she started to have balance issues and had to start using her cane. The day of her appointment October 6th we arrive at the appointment, due to Covid-19 I had to put her in a wheelchair, and send her in while I waited in the car, about 10 minutes into the visit security came to the car and the nurse brought me inside, I was told when Cindy was stepping onto the scale she almost fell. Lynn (Dr Rabinowe’s nurse) later told me that when she saw Cindy, she knew Cindy was sick.  After a brief evaluation it was decided to send Cindy to the Emergency Department for further evaluations, they drew lots of blood and ran test and found that her platelet count was dangerously low (I was told it should be between 150 and 450) hers was 9 then 7 then 5. Time to go upstairs for what we thought would be a short stay. They gave her blood and a unit of platelets which brought it up to 34, still not good so they needed more testing, on Wednesday the 7th

 I had to come in to hospital early to ok a bone marrow biopsy (she was not alert enough to sign the authorization form).

On Friday October 9th   the doctor called into the hospital again before visiting hours, pulled into a private area and was given the news that I will never forget, the cancer has returned and is very aggressive. It has affected her Liver, Spine and Brain and is still spreading, the doctor said that it is beyond treatment. She also had an infection and started to have an irregular heartbeat, any efforts to revive would cause more damage to her heart and organs. This is the point I have to make the most difficult decision of my life, I decided with all this information it was best to stop all treatment, keep her comfortable and move her to another room where I could spend as much time as the new COVID-19 hours would allow.

About 3pm Friday she was moved to a Hospice type room where she would be medicated to keep her comfortable. Thanks to COVID-19 I was only able to be with her from noon to 2pm and 6 to 8pm NO EXEPTIONS, so I was there as much as they would allow and while I was at work, I would call to check on her, there was no change in her condition, she was asleep (medicated) most of the time in this room. On Saturday the 10th I arrived for my 6-8 visit I entered the room to her sitting up with her eyes open (she looked very confused) for about 10 minutes then it was time to roll her on her other side, and she was out again.


While I was there, I talked to her a lot (I was told even though she was not alert she could hear me). So, I talked to her and played her songs from her google playlist and held her hand the whole time I was there. On the Saturday visit her brother David sent me her favorite song growing up “dream on By Aerosmith” she played the record ALL the time, so the 6-8 visit I played it for her a few times, I know she enjoyed it.

At 8pm I was time to leave, overnight I called a few times with no change in her condition.

On Sunday October 11th at about 530am I called to check-in and was told she had a little trouble breathing and was a bit restless so they gave her a bit more medication and she calmed down.

At approx. 830 am I got the call that she had passed peacefully at about 8am.

Throughout this long journey Cindy remained strong and positive with whatever hurdles were put up in front of her, she just went around them and continued on.

Cindy will be forever loved and forever missed, she has earned her wings, she was stronger than she showed.

Love you Forever….

Rest in peace honey, until we meet again.


Ron