My name is Ryekisha Roark and I am a 40 yr old wife and mother to 3 wonderful kids. I am an Executive Assistant at Cooper Hospital and have worked here for 16 years. I was born in Davenport, IA but was mainly raised in New Jersey. In my leisure time, I like to spend time at home with my family. I enjoy traveling and spending quality time with my family as well.
I was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer on August 16, 2018. Before being diagnosed, for about 2 months I was having a sharp pain under my right armpit that radiated to my right breast. I knew something was wrong. I saw my PCP, my GYN and a breast specialist and they all examined me and said I didn’t have a lump and it was probably nothing. But I demanded a mammo so my PCP ordered one. I got my mammo/ultrasound of both breast done on August 10th but it was abnormal. The radiologist wanted me to get a biopsy done and that was done on August 14th. I rec’vd the call from the radiologist 2 days later and she stated my biopsy came back positive for breast cancer. Worst news ever to get. And I was only 37 yrs old so I am happy I listened to my body and got the mammo done. The blessing part was, the cancer was an early Stage 1. A month later on September 26th, I got a double mastectomy and they also removed about 2 lymph nodes from my right arm to determine if the cancer had spread. I was informed a week after surgery that the cancer did not spread – which was a blessing. At the time, I didn’t know if I needed chemo/radiation, I had to wait until my Oncotype came back to determine that. I found out a month later I didn’t need neither chemo nor radiation.
Since my double mastectomy, I have had 2 reconstruction surgeries. And I will need a 3rd one done due to so much scar tissue. But God is good and he has brought me this far so I have nothing to complain about!