Alright, whenever you
are ready, Jennifer. OK.
I'm Jennifer Kortz and I was
diagnosed with inflammatory breast
cancer in November of 2016.
Oddly enough, when you Google my name,
one of the most common questions is,
is Jennifer Quartz still alive?
It's a fair question.
When we first told Jennifer
Story six years ago,
doctors realistically did not
expect her to live that long.
But her raw honesty, her her
anguish that she shared in
that story really helped it go viral
and connect with women everywhere.
I remember him saying
inflammatory breast cancer.
And all I could think
about was what I Googled.
Because what I Googled said.
That everybody dies.
That nobody survives.
And so I knew.
My fate.
Right then.
So right out
of the gate when I was diagnosed, I was.
You know, I I don't even know
how to what word to put on.
Just absolutely terrified and confused
and maybe angry. And depressed.
I wouldn't be truthful to you or
anybody else if I didn't say I
was sad and maybe a little mad.
But mostly sad.
It looked really grim because my cancer
had metastasized to my lymph nodes,
which is characteristic of
inflammatory breast cancer,
my liver as well as my bones,
and they estimated that I
had three to six months.
At the time, no one had really
heard of inflammatory breast cancer.
There's no lump, there's no tumor,
mammograms cannot detect it,
and doctors often mistake it for an
infection or for something else.
Her oncologist said though that.
Biopsy really is the only
way to properly diagnose it.
It's rare, Jennifer.
Most doctors won't necessarily
even see a case in their career.
I think where a lot of the
diagnostic problem comes in
is when you can't feel a mass,
you can't see it on mammogram,
you know, because it doesn't
act like regular breast cancer.
Or is there a typical demographic that that
you see more inflammatory breast cancer?
And so it's generally women under 40,
but it can be women in their 40s.
It can be postmenopausal women as well.
It's a slightly more common
in African American women,
my sister said to me.
In the very beginning, she said,
you know, we're gonna,
we're gonna get through this
because love beats everything.
And so we kind of came up
with this family mantra that
love is greater than cancer.
And in fact, my sister got it
tattooed on her arm and I probably
would have too if I felt like
a tattoo of safe at the time.
You know, I don't cry about
cancer much anymore. Part.
I just don't. But I still cry.
I still lose sleep and I still.
Get a lump in my throat when I think about.
Those little beauties. That I gave
birth to after having a day without me.
Clearly that stops me in my tracks.
It stops me in my tracks that.
My very best friend. That I'm married.
And has sacrificed so much
for me. Might have to raise them without me.
That chokes me up, obviously.
Overtime I learned to live with.
A terminal illness,
as opposed to the way I
looked at it in the beginning,
was I was dying from cancer.
Now I look at it. As.
I'm living with cancer
right now that you know,
they they have told me I could look
forward to maybe 10 years but of course,
you know I believe in miracles and and.
I'm hoping for a lot longer to
be with my to be with my family.