9/11 Moves Woman From Zombie To Warrior

 WNBC.COM

POSTED: 3:30 pm EDT May 23, 2008

 Gina Maisano is the author of "No Surrender, A Battlefield Guide for Fighting and Surviving Breast Cancer," the founder of the No Surrender forums and a seven-year survivor of breast cancer.

  On Sept. 6, 2001 my doctor said to me, "Let me tell you about your cancer," and my world changed forever. I knew nothing about breast cancer except that women died from it. I felt lost and very sorry for myself.

A couple of days later I went into Manhattan to see a specialist. My appointment was in downtown at 9 a.m. I arrived at 8:45. I remember hearing a plane flying very low over my head. I thought to myself, "Wow that plane is flying low" and went inside the building. It was Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001.

Soon a mixture of fear and disbelief spread throughout the waiting room. We were told the city was in lockdown, but I left. I met my dad out on the street and we then tried to leave Manhattan. They were closing all the bridges and tunnels but we managed to get onto the Triborough bridge right before they closed it. We were the only people on the bridge and we pulled over to look downtown at our beautiful city engulfed in smoke. It was at that moment that I realized the people in those buildings didn't have a chance to fight to save their lives, but I did. And I went from terrified zombie to warrior.

 I learned everything I could about breast cancer. I had my surgery and six months of chemotherapy, followed by eight weeks of radiation. I also joined an online support board. At first, I turned to the wonderful women, my new sisters, to help me understand what was happening to me. But then, as I completed each phase of my treatment, I began helping women who were newer than me get through the stage I had just completed and was now an expert in. This grew over the years. I have had the great joy of watching women who were nervous newbies when I met them, reach out as veterans to the newly diagnosed who come looking for help.

I stayed active with the online support forums long after my battle was over because I wanted to empower women, help them understand their disease and let them know that they were not alone. Most of all, though, I wanted them to know that they had to become warriors themselves and become their own best advocates.

After I reached the magic five-year mark, the date all our doctors tell us is our goal when we are first diagnosed, it was discovered that I had developed a different type of breast cancer in the opposite breast. This was not considered a recurrence, but something called a new primary. I had to get back on the battlefield again and reassemble my army of doctors for another fight for my life.

I had a bilateral mastectomy with immediate reconstruction and completed nine months of chemotherapy followed by radiation.

 The woman who knew nothing about cancer in 2001 got a crash course in medicine that was tested again in 2007. What did I learn? I learned you can make it through this diagnosis and all they ask of you. You just have to do it one moment at a time, learn as much as you can, reach out to fellow survivors who have walked the same path you are about to start, fight as hard as you can, advocate for yourself and, above all, no surrender.