Her Doctor Told Her She Had Nothing To Worry About, But She Insisted On A Biopsy

“If I had to live my life over, I’d have more bacon and whiskey.”

Other than that, Julieanna has few regrets. She set about pursuing her dreams early in life: she traveled, earned her doctorate, and became a professor of history at Siena Heights University in Michigan. She’s traveled to all 50 states, published four books, and found someone to marry who doesn’t mind her desire for strange travel experiences. “I just love to go places and see new things—and try new food. I love food… and cheese,” she said.

Part of Julieanna’s drive in life came from watching her grandmother and aunts suffer and pass away from breast cancer when she was a child. Losing them at 12 years old made her realize, for the first time, that life was finite. She knew she couldn’t put off doing what she wanted to do. “So get on it!” she said, smiling. She knew it was possible that breast cancer would touch her own life, and time was precious.

What’s not shown is the video is that Julieanna had done everything right trying to prevent breast cancer. She knew she was at risk because of her family history and because she had tested positive for the RAD51C gene, which increases the risk of breast cancer in some women. So she set about reducing her exposure to carcinogens as much as possible.

She exercised and ate right. She made her own cleaning products and didn’t dye her hair. She didn’t drink. She stayed away from bacon (which she thinks is delicious). She even tried going vegan for about six months. “That was all I could handle of that. I love cheese,” she laughed.

But despite her efforts, at 43 she noticed some strange dimpling in her right breast.

At first, she thought it might be the result of her new workout routine—she hadn’t heard of dimpled breasts as a sign of breast cancer. But when her nipple started to invert she knew something was wrong.

After both a mammogram and an ultrasound, the doctor didn’t see much that he found concerning. He gave Julieanna her choice: she could either be checked again in six months or have a biopsy that day. She insisted on a biopsy that day. “I’m glad that I insisted on the biopsy, because if I hadn’t I probably would not be here.”

Her right breast was full of cancer.

She was angry. Deeply angry. But rather than force herself to think positive, she allowed herself to channel her rage into motivation to fight. “Rage is my more go-to emotion than fluffy bunnies—not that I’m anti-bunnies!”

She also watched horror films to cope with the stress and pain of going through chemotherapy. She watched a horror film almost every day while going through chemo. She explained, “It helps distract me. Especially when you think, ‘Cancer isn’t as scary as a pyscho killer chasing after you.’ So it gives you perspective, and that was really important to me.”

It wasn’t only rage and horror films that helped her get through chemo. There were also hats—lots of hats.

When she saw a donated hat in the infusion center that was “so ugly it was cute,” Julieanna decided to claim it. Her original thought was just to take a picture in the ugly-cute hat and post it on Facebook so that her aunt would know that she was okay.

But then something clicked. “That’s what you can do,” she thought. “Every week you can create a ridiculous photo with you in a different hat, headdress, character, and then people will know that you’re okay.” That was the moment “Chemo Fashion Fridays” was born.

At her friends’ insistence, Julieanna decided to make the pictures from “Chemo Fashion Fridays” into a book. She put together photos, funny stories, and even a few haikus about her fight with cancer. “This is sort of just a fun, goofy piece that will hopefully be inspiration to other people going through it, and I think I’m the one that buys most of the copies and I give them to people.”

Today, Julieanna is grateful that she can still pick blackberries, play with her dog, and run through the airport to catch a plane. She says cancer has made her a kinder person, and braver. “I really don’t have much fear about anything at this point, not much… there’s a few things, like snakes. Snakes still freak me out!”

It’s now been three years since her double mastectomy, and she insisted on her husband taking her out to dinner to celebrate. She felt the occasion called for some cake.

We agree. The occasion absolutely calls for cake, and some cheese and bacon too!

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