‘What could possibly happen next?’

LOUISVILLE WOMAN BATTLES 6 LIFE CHALLENGES WHILE FIGHTING BREAST CANCER

When Emily Rombach walked into her first chemotherapy treatment, she was almost excited. ● After months of concerns about an unusual feeling in her breast and three weeks of worrying about her breast cancer diagnosis, she could finally do something about it. Her chances of survival were strong. Fighting breast cancer wouldn’t be easy, but as her doctors at the Norton Cancer Institute had reassured her, if she had to have breast cancer, this was the one to have. ● She plotted out all six rounds of chemotherapy on her calendar. All she had to do was cross them off, one by one. ● Emily knew she could do this. But nearly a year later, it’s wild how chaotic that calendar became. ● Life didn’t stop just because Emily was diagnosed with Stage 2, HER2-positive breast cancer. Instead, she and her husband Nick were thrust into the most turbulent months in their five years of marriage. Almost like clockwork, each time Emily went for a round of chemotherapy, something heartbreaking, exhausting or disruptive that had nothing to do with her cancer finagled its way into their lives. ● So much so that by the time Emily hit her third round of treatments, the question looming in her mind wasn’t about whether she’d survive cancer. It was “what could possibly happen next?” ● Now almost a year after she finished her last round of chemotherapy, she’s preparing to join 150 other survivors in the Kentucky Oaks Survivors Day Parade on May 3. In the weeks leading up to it, she took a few moments to reflect on her journey and the strength and resilience she showed, in all areas of her life, to get to that parade.