Lisa Hopewell
My name is Lisa Hopewell, I am an avid kayak angler, I have fished the the rough Gulf of Alaska for monster halibut. I also grew up fishing the local reservoirs and lakes for the trophy largemouth bass, and I am a cancer survivor. But more importantly I have a wonderful husband of 33 years, and two sons that would never let a fly hurt me.
It all started back in December when I went to the doctor for the usual checkup/mamogram. Everything checked out fine and I was on my way with my normal life. Then one day, about three months later, I was doing a self test and found something abnormal. So I took the next step, and made the soonest doctors appointment that I could get. My family and I waited by the phone for that dreaded call. The phone rang and my husband and I got the news, it was breast cancer. Having the strong and loving friends and family that I have we all came together and they told me, “We will fight this together!”.
So we made all of the doctors appointments, and started the long and rough pre-surgery process. After meeting with the plastic surgeon and the cancer surgeon, we found that the tumor was multiplying at a rate that the sooner we could get into surgery the better. What the doctor found was that I had Stage 1 cancer, and that if I hadn’t done a self check that the cancer would have spread to level that it would have been a longer and more extensive surgery, if they would have even been able to preform surgery.
When the day of the surgery (May 17th) came I had a very large group of friends at the hospital waiting for me, my best friend even drove down from Yosemite to drive me to the hospital. When the Surgeons came out to the waiting crowd and announced the news that they were able to get a 100% of the cancer, the room erupted with praise and joyful tears. My father (that is a cancer survivor and lost my mother after forty nine years of marriage to cancer) was very prompt to ensure that they were able to get all of the cancer. The first day of recovery was a bit of a doozy, it was my birthday. With family and friends by my side I turned the ever so young 52 in the hospital.
Now I am out of the hospital and ready to move on with life. My youngest son is getting married this month, and my oldest is engaged. The beautiful lucky ladies have given nothing but love and support to the family, and are welcomed with open arms. I know the fight isn’t quit over, with the chemo therapy coming up, but darn it I got a lot of fight left in me! I would like to take the time to thank all of my friends and family that have taken the time to drive me to my appointments, and God for the strength through prayer!