For much of the time that Sydrena Osborne has been a mom, she had also been engrossed in a fight against breast cancer, and young daughter Sydney was been by her side through it all.
“She was in preschool when my battle with cancer began, and I decided I couldn’t hide it from her. She was there when I was diagnosed and when I opened my eyes after having a double mastectomy,” said Sydrena.
While many might shy away from talking about cancer, for Sydrena, being open about her condition was crucial, especially in relation to Sydney.
“She knows everything about my treatment; she saw the scars, tubes and reconstruction. I think it’s so important to be open, because she understood what I was experiencing and why I was limited,” Sydrena says.
Initially, the journey to remission led Sydrena through not only a double mastectomy at Tallahassee Memorial, but also chemotherapy. When the cancer returned a year-and-a-half later, Sydrena underwent aggressive radiation treatment at the Tallahassee Memorial Cancer Center.
“The second time I was diagnosed, I was more afraid,” she says, “but the way the physicians at the Cancer Center worked together made me feel like everyone knew me and my specific situation. Now I feel 100 percent better and trust that the right decisions were made about my treatment.”
Today, Sydrena is cancer free and while she will continue to manage her risk of breast cancer with a lifelong medication regimen, cancer no longer keeps her from doing what matters most in her life, spending time with her daughter.
