Our President - Lori Adelfio
Lori Adelfio &
Chris Resnick / Lori Adelfio & Michele
Miley
at The Breast Cancer
3 Day
When Christine was diagnosed, my parents were there for a
visit and subsequently stayed through the months afterward. She had
her mastectomy, reconstruction and was gearing up for her first
rounds of chemotherapy, but nothing was going to get her down. She
planned and attended her daughters 6th birthday party and walked
five miles, yes FIVE miles, participating in her first "Making
Strides Against Breast Cancer" event benefiting The American Cancer
Society. A pretty courageous venture considering she was
post-operative for only a few weeks. With my parents help, my
sister recovered from the surgical portion of her treatment and was
undergoing chemotherapy. She shopped for Christmas gifts, put up
her Christmas tree and it seemed as if she prepared for the
holidays as though the preceding months had never happened. She
shaved her head, bought a beautiful wig and plenty of eyebrow
pencil. When Spring arrived, so did several weeks of radiation
therapy combined with her chemotherapy. Then a recurrence. Her
original diagnosis was Infiltrating Intraductal Carcinoma. In the
Spring/Summer of 2001, she was diagnosed I.B.C. Inflamatory Breast
Cancer. It was a hard blow and quite frightening considering she
"had done everything right."
Through out the years, I've tried to be a
comfort and be the source for a laugh when she's "sick and tired of
being sick and tired." To be her cheerleader when her arm, swollen
from Lymphadema, hurts her so much she
doesnââ'¬â"¢t
know what to do with herself. Let me tell you why she never ceases
to amaze me though. Since August of 2000, she has been
confronted with her own mortality and yet she moves through her
life as though it isn't really happening. She works so hard not to
let her illness affect her daughters. She takes them to Girl
Scouts, piano lessons, soccer, swim lessons, basketball, drama club
and the list exhaustingly goes on. She bakes classroom birthday
cupcakes for each of her daughter's birthdays, makes their
Halloween costumes and helps to make costumes needed for drama
club. She makes sure that each of her girls has two birthday
parties; one to invite all of their friends and another one for the
family. She volunteers for a program at the elementary school
called "Project Bookworm" which helps children who are having a
harder time learning to read. I guess all of the above helps
ME to move through MY life as though she doesn't have
breast cancer.
It took about a year before I started asking
questions of myself. Do I get tested for the genetic markers for
breast cancer? What does it mean if I have the markers? Since the
markers being present doesn't necessarily mean I will get breast
cancer, do I want to know if I have these genes running through my
body? At first, I felt guilty that I was thinking of myself while
my sister was fighting the disease, almost selfish. However, as I
read all that I possibly could process about this disease, I did
have to wonder, what about my predication? To this day, I still
wrestle with that question. Currently, I have an unexplained lump
that has been labeled "nothing" by doctors, so I'm asking myself
the question again. What about my predication? I suppose even 5
years later, the feelings of selfishness arise, but now, reality
overrules the idea that someone could be selfish in such matters as
health. I petitioned Congress to mandate that medical insurance companies cover genetic testing for families that have been affected by breast cancer. So insurance companies do, but you have to jump through hoops to make it happen. I don't think genetic testing is a novelty, it's a necessity to family members with a concern of family history. Check out our Facebook petition that we submitted with over 3.7 million signatures supporting it! It was mentioned in an L.A. Times story as well. (http://apps.facebook.com/causes/petitions/90?m=7d9ba850) Support our newest petition on our home page that will be submitted to remind our lawmakers we need to pass this important legislation.I needed to channel my anxiety and I wanted to take a stand
against breast cancer, but how? I remembered talking to my sister
about the breast cancer resource center she went to in New Jersey
and I wondered why there wasn't one here in St. Augustine, FL. I
thought if I couldn't affect change in New Jersey, why not affect
change in St. Augustine? In August of 2003, my sister and I formed
a foundation called "Committed ToA Cure - Partners In Hope
".
We are hoping that this foundation can reach out
into the community and help those who are affected by breast cancer
as well as affecting the medical community and health insurance
companies to cover new tests that will aid in early detection. We
have goals for this foundation and our hope is that we achieve
those goals and soar ever higher working toward a cure for this
devastating disease. We are a Non-Profit organization and we will
keep our supporters informed of the progress of this
foundation.
Wishes for good health,
Lori Adelfio
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