Ride with Me
by Lorraine Dube
Category: Biography & Autobiography

When Lorraine Dube went for her annual mammogram on September 4, 1997, she asked the technician for compression films of her upper chest area, right front shoulder, and underarm areas. She explained that, for almost a year, she had felt a pulling sensation in these areas. Although her doctor had assured her many times that it was nothing, probably just an after effect of the radiation treatment she had after her lumpectomy seven and a half years earlier, she still had a nagging concern about that odd tight feeling in her chest. When the technician took the films, it was five times more painful than when she did the routine compression shots of the breast. Tears were running down Lorraine´s face, but she not dare move. Four days later, her doctor called. Lorraine, this is Dr. V. How long have you had that mass in your chest? You have to see a surgeon immediately. Lorraine asked herself why Dr. V had ignored her concerns all those times. She reprimanded herself for not seeking a second opinion when she first experienced that pulling sensation and did not feel comfortable with his lack of response to her concern. So many things went through her mind, yet memories of her own lumpectomy were just the tip of the iceberg. She relived the horror of more than thirty years earlier when, as a mother of three small children at age 22, she heard those terrible words from Dr. DeVillers about her 26-year old husband´s cancer condition & four to six weeks the doctor had said. All of this flashed through her mind at speed warp ten ... literally in just a few seconds. Her life path had taken her through quite a few coaster rides throughout her 57 years, but all those were kiddy rides compared to this one. And so, the mother-of-all-roller coaster rides of life began with that fateful phone call from Dr. V. Lorraine Dube beat the odds. She beat that aggressive Stage 3 sarcoma lodged in her chest wall. But the battle was not without many, many scars. In the process, she lost five ribs, all her lymph nodes in the right arm area, a piece of her clavicle, most of the use of her right arm and hand "and nearly her life. After seven surgeries, chemotherapy treatments, experimental brachytherapy and countless battles with infection, including a flesh eating bacteria inside her chest wall, Lorraine Dube was cancer free but left suffering from chronic, debilitating pain, a souvenir from her ordeal that she would carry for the rest of her life. Lorraine was a survivor, always had been. But this time it was different. Why had God spared her from the terrible cancer and its aftermath of surgery, infections and lost body parts " only to leave her suffering from such unimaginable pain? The cancer was gone, but at what cost? What the heck was she supposed to do with the rest of her life? On her way to figuring it out, her daughter suggested that she write a book about her life. Don´t worry about writing a best seller, Mom. Just write it from the heart. Write it for your grandsons. Five years later, Ms. Dube began writing this book, the story of her life. She tells the story of her life from the earliest recollections of childhood, through the sometimes rough years of adulthood all with a few purposes in mind. She wants to tell her grandsons about her history, their history, and to relate all her adult experiences some good, some bad, some easy, some tough, all with the purpose of showing them that they, too, are survivors like their Memere. Her message: Life may, indeed, be a roller coaster, but nothing is impossible. Somewhere along the line, writing this book became Lorraine´s therapy. She began to make peace with, and sense of, the chronic pain that gripped her and kept her from leading the life she wanted, the life she expected. After all, her golden years were supposed to be her happiest. This b