Survivor Success Story: Suellen Germani

Survive and Thrive is a blog celebrating people who are thriving following a cancer diagnosis and treatment. I thought it only fitting that the first Survivor Success Story be my own.

In 2003 at the age of 38, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had never even had a mammogram before hearing this news.

A month or so before the diagnosis, I felt a slight pain in my left breast. Thinking I had pulled a muscle lifting weights at the gym, I pushed into the breast to determine which muscle was causing the mild radiating discomfort.

"What the hell is that marble doing in my boob?" I thought to myself. The next day, I began trying to get an appointment with my primary care physician. After I was finally able to see him, he immediately sent me for my first-ever mammogram.

Following the mammogram, the radiologist brought me into the room to look at the films. She said the lump was probably a benign fibroedenoma. A day or so later, the surgeon said the same thing but suggested we do a needle biopsy. I had already started surfing the internet for information about breast lumps and asked if we could just pop out the entire lump instead. She agreed to do so.

A couple of days after my lumpectomy on December 23rd, my surgeon called to say, "We found a little cancer."

"A little cancer? What does that mean?" I asked. "Is that like being a little pregnant?"

She calmly replied, "We need to schedule another surgery to check the lymph nodes and get cleaner margins." Merry Christmas to me.

I absolutely could not get my brain around the fact that this was happening. And not in a "Why me, God?" pity party kind of way. You see, I was really angry that my perfectly planned life was now being radically disrupted by a disease that was not anywhere on my To-Do list. I now have a real appreciation for the quote: If you want to see God laugh, tell him your plans.

So after raging and crying for a night and telling my friends and family, I began to settle into the idea that I had cancer. While on a bike ride with my husband Greg soon after Christmas, I decided that I would somehow use this experience to help others someday. At that moment, I consciously chose to view the cancer dance as a bizarre adventure and document the experience along the way.

Greg took photos of me getting my first chemo treatment (the other patients asked the nurse if I was someone famous). My mom and dad came over to videotape my hairdresser sister-in-law when she shaved my hair into a mohawk before giving me a shiny head.

I wrote in my journal almost everyday. I walked in the Susan G. Komen breast cancer walk when my friends and family sponsored a team in my honor. I helped my dear friend Paige go through treatment for a rare form of adrenal cancer. I joined a wonderful cancer support group with her. I miss her zany sense of humor now that she's gone.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that my mother-in-law was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor while I was going through chemo. Because she lives a couple of hours away and needed daily radiation treatments at a hospital near our house, she moved in with us for a couple of months. Into our little 1,200 square foot house. Yeah. It's a good thing we get along well. Truthfully, we really bonded through the experience. She recently got completely choked up trying to give a toast when we celebrated the fifth year since my cancer diagnosis.

After treatment, I decided to step away from cancer for awhile. So I packed up the photos, the journal, and the wigs. And I begin thinking about how I wanted to spend the rest of my long life. I knew that I wanted to keep my foot in the corporate world in order to maintain access to affordable health insurance. But I also wanted to do something more meaningful than healthcare management, the job I've had for over 15 years.

Then I remembered a fantasy that I had tucked away. Years ago, I read about woman who had started her own company as a professional organizer. I thought that would be the PERFECT job for me to do after retirement. I confessed this fantasy to a friend who said, "Look, I know successful business owners who aren't nearly as smart or as focused as you are. Start your own company. You don't have to quit your corporate job either. Who says you can't do both?"

So that's exactly what I did. In 2005, I started my professional organizing firm, Creative Order, and began helping people get their lives in order. It's been one of the most life-enriching and fun things I've ever done.

And in 2008, I completed the Coach For Life life coaching program in San Diego. Combining organizing and life coaching in my business has allowed me to help people develop organized plans for pursuing their passions and creativity. Plus, I'm getting to coach cancer survivors like me who are ready to grab life by the horns and ride bravely into the future!

My life now is so much more rich, meaningful, and spiritually connected now than it was before cancer. For that I am eternally grateful.