I was diagnosed with Stage IIB Triple Negative Breast Cancer in November of 2017! This day changed my life! The cancer had also spread to my lymph nodes in my left arm. I started the first of 16 rounds of chemotherapy on my 47th birthday. After the chemo was completed I had a double mastectomy with 14 lymph nodes removed. I had expanders placed in my chest walI, but became sick with a staph infection soon after surgery and had to have the expanders removed in October of 2018. After recovering from the expander removal, I began 25 rounds of radiaion. I recently completed 7 cycles of adjunct chemo, called Xeloda. It is now July 2019 and I am preparing my body and mind for reconstruction. I will undergo DIEP Flap surgery and re-routing of my lymph nodes with RUSH University. 

I was honored to be a part of the Star 105.5 5K team last October, where I proudly completed the walk 7 days out of surgey. Joe and Tina named our team Vicki's Cupcakes and this meant so much in my recovery and mission to educate women about Breast Cancer. Our community is very lucky to have resources such as the Family Health Partnerships in order to provide early detection and screenings to individuals that are uninsured. It is our responsibility as community members to take care of one another and support comprehensive programs such as FHPC.    -Vicki Sostarich