A journey of faith: Breast cancer strikes young mother

By Rosanne Bowman

LIMA — When Jodi Reed found the lump in her breast several weeks before Christmas 2009, she initially thought it was nothing. After all, she was only 36.

“I rarely, if ever, checked,” she said. “It was initially difficult to fall asleep that night because I imagined, ‘what if this is breast cancer?' But Jesus' words came to my mind as I lay there sleepless. ‘My power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).' I was weak and scared, so I slept.”

Jodi Reed went to her appointment tentatively, truly believing the lump would not turn out to be anything serious. After the initial mammogram and then biopsy, she did not have to wait long to find out the news.

“To my utter shock,” she said, “I was diagnosed the next day with the most aggressive type of breast cancer.”

Jodi Reed immediately began sobbing when she received the news Dec. 10.

“I kept protesting that I had 9-month-old twins, so I couldn't have cancer,” she said. “Like that made any difference.”

Her husband David Reed, had a completely different reaction to the news. “I was in a state of disbelief,” he said. “The whole thing seemed surreal to me.”

The couple, who both work at St. Rita's Medical Center as physical therapists, had gone through three years of fertility treatments to conceive their twins, Zane and Sophia, who turned 2 in March.

“Initially, even though it may seem strange, I felt almost guilty,” said Jodi Reed. “We went through all this, brought two kids here and now they might not have a mother.”

The first few days were the toughest for the couple, as they came to terms with the cancer diagnosis and the long road ahead of them with an uncertain outcome.

“We would only nap throughout the night, cry and wonder,” she said. “Though nothing can separate us from God's love, sometimes life just hurts more than you think you can bear.”

For David Reed, the hardest thing was knowing how difficult treatment would be for his wife.

“It was hard for me to know I did not have any control over that,” he said.

Jodi Reed had a double mastectomy on Dec. 22 but was home in time to celebrate the twins' first Christmas.

She then went on to have six months of chemotherapy treatments using a variety of drugs. After the chemotherapy, she did 33 radiation treatments which were administered Monday through Friday for almost seven weeks. In addition, she continued on Herceptin for one year.

During her chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Jodi Reed's parents moved in with them for 10 months to help take care of Sophia and Zane, and to keep the household running.

“Everyone came together,” she said. “God showed me the twins would be fine no matter what happened. That was humbling but comforting.”

During this very difficult time, Jodi Reed learned to ask for help when she needed it. Instead of just asking people to pray, she learned to be specific in her requests.

“I found that as night would come on, I'd get more anxious,” she said, “so I started asking people to pray specifically for me at night. Within days, I no longer was anxious at night.”

She also found solace in the Bible. “So many times we think it is cliché to share Scripture with people who are hurting,” she said. “But I had eight pages of Scripture I read over multiple times a day. It was like food to me, and I could feel my anxiety dissipate as I meditated on them. Dave would read Scripture over me during the time I was taking chemo, too. The comfort of that was indescribable.”

Now, 19 months out from her initial diagnosis, Jodi Reed is in remission. She passed her three-month check-up. She will continue to be checked every three months for a year, after which, her check-ups will become less frequent.

There are no guarantees about her future though, and Jodi Reed said her fears came back the day after she stopped taking Herceptin.

“I had to stop and ask myself where I was putting my faith,” she explained. “It's not a one time choice to not be afraid — you have to keep making it.”

Through this whole journey, Jodi Reed has found that her faith and trust in God has increased dramatically.

“The miracle in all of this is that I didn't completely freak out,” she said. “The point is, God was always trustworthy, but I didn't know I was capable of trusting Him. If I can do it, anybody can. Prior to this experience, my faith was always based on circumstances. His grace really is sufficient, even when it doesn't feel like it.”

If you have a story idea or an item you feel the community would like to know about for the Religion section, please contact Rosanne Bowman at bbowman3@woh.rr.com or 419-331-3958.