My Mom was a warrior, a fighter to the end. After a diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer, she made it her job, her goal to live a meaningful and productive life. Lymph nodes were removed, and it would be years before the swelling would begin. Something we had no idea was coming. The truth is, and I only lived through it from her experience, it was awful.

My Mom lost her ability to use her arm, her hand. It was dead weight, dead weight that just hung there. I bought her a sling because she needed relief, no compression garment for her. The pain was agonizing. I remember food containing red dye, left her in huge amounts of pain. I am horrified by the experience of the situation. It was her right arm and of course she was right handed. She never let not having a functioning arm stop her. She bathed, dressed, wrote and functioned with her left hand and arm. She truly was a warrior. I never told my Mother she is my hero...I wish I had.