In October 2025, my life changed forever. I was diagnosed with **Stage 3 colon cancer**.
Nothing prepares you for hearing the words, "You have cancer." In that moment, it felt like the world stopped. I was scared, overwhelmed, and filled with so many questions. As a newly licensed ER nurse, a mother, and a woman who had already overcome so much, this was a battle I never expected to face.
Looking back, my body had been trying to tell me something. I experienced fatigue, severe anemia, changes in my bowel habits, pencil-thin stools, blood in my stool, and abdominal pain. I kept pushing through, thinking it was stress or something less serious. I never imagined it would be colon cancer.
After being admitted to the hospital, doctors performed a colonoscopy and found a mass blocking my colon. I underwent an eight-hour surgery and spent 14 days in the hospital. When the pathology results came back, my worst fear became my reality: Stage 3 colon cancer.
The months that followed were some of the hardest of my life. Chemotherapy challenged me physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. There were days I was exhausted, sick, and in pain. I experienced neuropathy, watched my body change, and wondered if life would ever feel normal again.
But through it all, God never left me.
There were moments when I cried, questioned, and felt afraid, but God continued to remind me that my diagnosis was not my destiny. He surrounded me with family, friends, prayer, and a community that carried me when I couldn't carry myself.
Cancer changed me.
It taught me that tomorrow is never promised. It taught me to slow down, to appreciate the little things, and to trust God even when I couldn't understand His plan. It strengthened my faith and gave me an even greater purpose.
Today, I don't just see myself as a cancer survivor. I see myself as someone whose life is a testimony of God's grace and faithfulness. Cancer tried to write my story, but God took the pen.
My story isn't about cancer winning.
My story is about God sustaining me.
If sharing my journey encourages even one person to listen to their body, get screened, or hold onto hope during their own battle, then every part of this journey has a purpose.
I am still here.
I am still standing.
And God is still writing my story.
With love, Mel