They said I would only live for 4 months, but it was 2 years ago – and I’m not ready yet

As said Erica Rimlinger

Six months after my first pregnancy I felt a lump in my chest and brought it to my doctor’s appointment. “Oh, that’s normal,” said my OB-Gyn. “That happens when you are pregnant.”

Three years later, in 2022, I was in a hospital jacket PET -Scan From my body. Every piece of light on the black background showed where cancer had taken a residence. The scan was lit at night like the Las Vegas strip.

That lump was not ‘normal’. It was Her2-positive breast cancerAnd by the time it was discovered three years later, it had spread everywhere.

No matter how shocking that image was, I knew something was wrong in my body after my daughter was born and three years later. My hair had become three shades darker and fell out and broke. I slept 12 hours a night and took two hours of braters to get through the day. I saw specialists who diagnosed me hypothyroidism. In the summer of 2022 I found pit In my chest, as if I had a broken implant – except that I had no implants. Again, a dermatologist told me it was ‘normal’.

In the fall of 2022 the muscles in my chest felt painful, and when I was showering, I felt a lump. This time my doctor said that I had to get a mammogram and ultrasound, which led to a biopsy and diagnosis. I was in the early thirty, the mother of a toddler, had always worked and had no family history of cancer. How can I have breast cancer? I did not match the criteria.

But the PET scan, clearly glowing, showed breast cancer that had spread to my lymph nodes, thyroid gland, kidneys, liver, stomach, skeletal system and more.

I immediately started with chemotherapy and hormone suppressors. My insurance would not cover brain MRI, even though I had cancer of the neck everywhere and HER2-positive breast cancer usually goes to the brain when it spreads. My doctor fought for the brain MRI and in February 2023 it clearly came back.

More good news followed: in April 2023 I completed chemotherapy and my tumors were shrunk considerably. Mine Liver enzyme were normal. I stayed hormone therapy and my hair grew back. I regularly had scans to ensure that I was still on my way to my goal of Ned: “No proof of illness.” My doctor sent me for a second brain MRI in August.

I sat on the couch with my daughter who prepared to take her to school when I received the call about the MRI results of the brain.

It was the worst scenario: there was cancer in my spinal cord fluid. When cancer suck There it is called Leptomingeal’s disease and it is incurable. When I hurried to see my doctor, and three more doctors, I was told that morning that I would live with treatment for two weeks and four months.

I had 10 rounds of radiation on my entire brain and entire spine. I learned that there was a medical team in Baltimore using proton radiation. My insurance denied this treatment, but I fought and won.

2025

In Baltimore I stayed in a house for young adults fighting cancer. I missed my daughter and husband back in Tampa, but it was nice to have a car service in the hospital and the company of a surviving community with people my age.

However, the treatment itself was not fun. I then vomited home all the way and all night, although I received anti-sickness medication. The second round let me study of nausea due to the smell of burning meat. I was told that only a few people could smell that during the treatment. After the first four days of treatment, I threw every other hour.

After 10 rounds I had lost 30 pounds and felt like my esophagus was burning. But I made it. Now I could return home and undergo my very first operation: I would have a port in my brain that one new vaccine Right in my spinal cord fluid. The vaccine was so new, I would be the second patient to get it.

For the next 16 Monday I would show up for my appointment from six to eight o’clock. Although the vaccine took only 10 minutes to manage, it could only be mixed after I was checked in in the hospital, so the majority of my time was spent waiting for waiting. While the vaccine dripped through the harbor in my brain in my spinal cord, I could hear it. Then came the pain, which I rated 10 out of 10. It was so serious that I couldn’t move for an hour after that, so serious that when my mother drove me home and hit a speed, I surrendered all night.

In January 2024 I reached my goal from Ned from the neck down, but scans showed that I had developed Brain tumors. I switched to a treatment of breast cancer that blood-brain barrier. I could take this medicine at home as a pill at home, but it ensured that I lost 80% of the vision in my right eye. I started to get injections into the eyeball to prevent it from spreading to the other eye, but it didn’t work.

2025 (Photo/Danielle Nicole)

I had to switch to my third line of treatment in two years. I now get this chemotherapy every three weeks. Days three to five are difficult, but I get to feel good with this medication for two weeks.

My care providers predicted that I would survive for four months, but I have now lived with Leptomingeal’s disease for almost two years. I am on unknown territory. So far I am the only person who has been able to finish the vaccine.

I discovered the Leptomingeal Cancer FoundationHe connects and argues for people with this disease. I have met incredible people through this network and I am always willing to share my experience with the vaccine with people who have questions. I encourage people to try it, but I don’t have a sugar jacket or make it sound easy.

The people I met through this source have helped me learn to live with my illness. I argue for myself. I try every test and every new treatment, even if it is scary. I concentrate on look. My family planned a trip to Jackson Hole in March. My daughter, Palmer, has never seen snow. I want to do this first, and all the scoops, with her. She has so much to experience.

I am a logical person and I am not in denial. I only get emotional when I talk about Palmer. She is the reason I fight. She is light and joy, and she will be the reason I know my family will be fine. She will bring everyone through this.

After my diagnosis I wrote 21 birthday letters for Palmer. I wanted them to read them on her birthdays after I was gone to make sure she knew her mother’s love stayed with her when she grew up. I have lived long enough to throw away the first five letters because I can tell her that I love her personally. I am now determined to throw the sixth away.

This educational source is made with support from Merck and Daiichi.

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