Name: Bridget Mooney
Date of birth: July 16, 1983Lives in: Boston
Diagnosed: June 2005
Bridget Mooney's impending college graduation seemed ripe with possibility. She had a new boyfriend, Alex, and her friends were crazy about him. A vacation on the Cape was planned. And, after graduation, she planned on working in the city she loved: Boston. So when her fingers sometimes moved to the breast lump she had discovered in February, she often distracted herself so as not to think too much about it. On the days when the lump proved elusive, she reasoned it really wasn't a big deal.
"I didn't have a doctor. I had no family history. I went to a nurse-practitioner who told me that it was a fibroadenoma [a non-cancerous breast growth]. I put my head in the sand and said, ‘Great. I can go on with my senior year.'"
But when her mother arrived for graduation and expressed alarm at Mooney's wasted appearance, she told her mom about the lump.
"She said, ‘You are coming home immediately to see my doctor.'"
Back in Baltimore, she had an ultrasound, mammogram and biopsy.
"The technician kept bringing in more people, but no one would tell me anything. It was the first time I had touched my breast since I had gone to the clinic, and the lump had become so easy to find. I thought, ‘Maybe I should have been more on top of this.'"
Days later, her mother called. "This is cancer," she said.
Somehow Mooney made her way to her boyfriend's house─the boyfriend her friends were crazy about, a boyfriend who had not signed up for cancer patrol.
"I said, ‘I have cancer, and my life is about to get dramatic. You are either in this 100 percent or I need to end this right now.' Alex was shocked, but it never would have occurred to him not to stick around."
The couple packed for Baltimore, where they stayed for the summer. They were unprepared for a Stage IV diagnosis or to learn that Mooney also had tumors in her lungs and liver.
"Initially, the idea was ‘You are young; we want to save your breasts,'" she says of the pre-staging plan to use chemotherapy to prepare her for a lumpectomy. "Then it switched to ‘This is incurable. You will be on chemo for the rest of your life, and we don't know how long that will be.'"
Mooney's initial prognosis, a 16 percent chance of seeing her 30th birthday, stunned her. After her first chemotherapy treatment, she hit bottom. Sitting in her parents' home with her brothers gone, her parents working and her boyfriend on a quick trip to Boston, she thought "Everyone has a life but me." She cried. And then she picked herself up and booked a beach trip, which invigorated her and reminded her that she did have a life. Her resilient spirit still drives her three years later, after six months of initial chemotherapy, a lumpectomy and radiation. Now living in Boston, she maintains a steady treatment regimen that includes chemotherapy treatment, oral medication and shots.
"The doctors told me that I've had a better response to the drugs than 98 percent of patients. Stage IV is often terminal, but I see it more like diabetes. I get my maintenance drugs every three weeks, and I continue on with life."
She lives that life with equal parts zeal and care.
"Before, I gave my body a beating. If I felt tired or sick, I would push through it. I love taking care of myself now. I have learned to listen to my body more. I have no shame in spending a whole day sleeping or lying on the couch. If that is what my body is telling me, there must be some reason for it. I eat organic, walk, swim, do yoga and get massages. My mother and I recently went to London. Before the diagnosis my life revolved around going to bars─now I try to spend my time doing more meaningful things."
Though she generally feels well, she has had to make adjustments. The high-impact workouts she used to do are just too hard on her body to do now. Because she had some lymph nodes removed in surgery, repetitive motions with her left arm can lead to lymphedema, a drastic swelling condition that occurs when the remaining lymph nodes respond to stresses by retaining fluid. And, about every three months, Mooney has a new body scan to see if the cancer has grown. Alex is always by her side.
"Personally, I think it is incredibly unfair that he has to worry about these things. He didn't ask for this; he chose it. I admire that a lot. I know that, even if the worst happens, we will deal. I am also pretty glad that my scans affect him as much as they affect me. It's nice to know you may be anxious, but you aren't anxious alone."
Another source of comfort her Mooney is her work in breast cancer advocacy, both personally and professionally. She is a coach coordinator for the Breast Cancer 3-Day, a 60-mile walk that raises funds to support breast cancer patients and research. She speaks at colleges, which is especially imperative because breast cancer is much more aggressive in young women and is often diagnosed at an advanced stage, leading to a higher mortality rate.
"Most of you will never have breast cancer (at) my age," she tells her audiences. "But some of you will find a lump, and all of you will have some sort of health scare. My story shows you what happens if you don't take your health seriously."
Mostly, Mooney takes comfort in everyday living─not the special occasions as much as the regularities.
"I absolutely love the beach. I prefer going to the beach alone, with my iPod and a book. I take a little day trip there at least once a week, even in the fall. I think now, when I have good days, I appreciate it so much more. When I'm feeling good, I am almost on a high. I can be incredibly energized and get a whole list of things done, perhaps because I feel I need to take advantage of the good day I've been given."
