What happened, in summary

Elissa was 34 and only a few months postpartum when numbness in her feet began interfering with daily life. She could not keep shoes on comfortably and could barely play tennis for 20 to 30 minutes. Because she had recently given birth, the symptoms were easy to explain away as part of recovery. Then her husband felt a lump in her left breast. A breast exam, ultrasound, mammogram, and biopsy followed. The lump in her breast and lymph nodes in her armpit were malignant. Scans then showed that the cancer was already Stage IV, with spread to lymph nodes, extensive liver involvement, and a spot in the spine. The cancer was HER2-positive, and Elissa said she had no family history or known hereditary mutation. She expected surgery might be the first step, but metastatic disease changed the goal to systemic treatment. She started chemotherapy quickly and felt a dramatic response after the first round: foot numbness improved, and the breast lump became hard to feel. After a second opinion, her team removed carboplatin from the original regimen because it was more toxic and no longer considered necessary for her Stage IV care. She later described about 5 treatment lines over 4 years. As of July 2025, Elissa was living with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer on long-term treatment, with quality of life and self-advocacy central to her care.