Our Interview with Mormon Channel

We were deeply honored to do this interview with Mormon Channel.

You can listen to it here!

Our interview with CBS 4 News

This interview had an amazing international outreach, finding its way to websites, blogs and news stations in Australia, England, Singapore, Canada and the U.S.  We are overwhelmed and grateful that our message of choice and hope reached so many!

Watch it here!

Thank you for your support.  I wish you happiness and abundance!

The Perfect Gift

February, 26, 2015

I am so filled with peace and a motivation to change that I cannot sleep despite the nausea and effects of the chemotherapy.  Today is the first day of the rest of my life.  It is a precious gift and I’m not going to waste it.  Yesterday, I held the hand of my dying friend, Mary.  The Spirit and a deep sense of love and peace was so strong, you could literally feel it vibrating in the air.  Holding her hand and feeling that love, acceptance and eternity of her soul was one of the most beautiful moments of my life.  Mary is a magnificent soul.  She has lived a life of trial and hardship, but she has lived it with faith, diligence and charity.

It struck me so deeply of the beauty of a well-lived life.  Here was a woman who was not afraid to face death, who was not plagued with regret over her standing before her eternal Creator.  Her complete serenity has inspired me.  It has caused me to ask, “How do I want to feel on my death bed?  What do I want to leave behind?  How do I want to feel as I know I soon will return to my God and Savior?”  I am determining now, in this very moment to live so I too may have that peace.  So that I too will know my Savior as my redeemer and friend and have a clear conscience before him.  So that I will look back on my life and see the pure love that I had for my husband, my children and my brothers and sisters here on this earth.

Death can be beautiful and witnessing the end of a mortal life carries a very valuable opportunity for us.  It gives us the chance to remember that we are not immortal.  We too will someday find ourselves there.  It’s a guarantee.  It gives us the chance to reflect upon our own lives, our own standing before our Eternal Father.  It gives us the ability to recognize the incredible gift of a new day, another chance to breathe, to change and become, to start over and move forward.  And that is what I am going to do.  Today and every day.  I will not procrastinate becoming the person I want to be, the person I know will be able to look up into my Savior’s face, clean, perfected and holy.  I will be that person today.

Chemo is kicking my trash- so I'm fighting back!

Snuggled under a blanket with Kiery listening to Michael Buble.  I've spent most of the past two days this way.  It may not look like it, but this is me fighting.  Chemo sucks.  Period.  I sleep 14 hours a day and that doesn't seem enough (poor Ben!).  When I'm up, my head is foggy, my stomach is nauseous and my body tingles all over from the chemo attacking my nervous system.  I thought I'd feel better by now, it's been three days since the infusion after all, but I don't.  I'm at that point of breaking down.  I don't want to do this anymore and I have so long still to go.  Letting it overwhelm me would be easy.

I've learned its okay to cry.  It's okay to admit I'm weak, because that in itself is a strength.  But I'm also going to fight back.  I'm going to see that there's a purpose in my suffering, even if its only to entertain my clouded brain for a while, but maybe, I can help someone else in sharing my story.

It may be cheesy, but I made this graphic of one of my favorite quotes from Henry Ford to help lift my spirits today and maybe it will lift others as well.  I determined I would do my best to work out six days a week even while recovering from the chemo.  While on the treadmill, these words keep running through my mind, "I think I can, and I'm right."  It would have been easy to say, "I'm too weak.  I'm too sick.  This hurts too much.  It's too hard."  And I would have been right.  I wouldn't have done it.  But I told myself another story.  "I am strong.  I can do this."  And so I did.  Watch the stories you tell yourself.  If you don't like the plot, change it.

Sending love, health and happiness your way.

Support Breast Cancer Research and Awareness!

I'm donating 20% of all my book sales from my Special Edition box set to raise money for cancer research and awareness, so if you'd like to help this cause, pick up a copy on Amazon today.

This Special Edition Box Set contains four of Heather Choate's gripping novels including Swab, Frayed Crossing ,Blackwing Angel, and Fall for You .  20% of all profits from this box set will be donated to UC Foundation Young Women's Breast Cancer Research in an effort to raise awareness about breast cancer in young women and provide support for those currently in the fight.  Enjoy the amazing novels and thank you for supporting the fight against breast cancer!

Here's a quick description of SWAB:

SWAB (A Young Adult Sci-fi Novel)

“I love Ray, but if he’s still human, he’ll put a knife in my chest.”

Seventeen year old Cat has become a scarb— a mutated human whose instincts are now to kill any living human on sight.  She awakens from her “New Birth” to find herself trapped inside a scarb colony ruled by a vicious queen who is intent on using Cat’s abilities as a bearer to raise up an army that will crush any remaining humans.  But Cat sill remembers what it is like to be human.  She desperately clings to the love she has for Ray, who escaped from the colony before Cat could know if he turned scarb, or remained human.  She must decide if she’s willing to risk her life, and the lives of those she loves, to challenge the queen and pursue a man who could kill her now that she’s become everything he hates.

Swab delivers equal parts suspense and romance, delving into the clash between survival and morality set in a future with jarring parallels to our present.  Perfect for fans of  The Hunger Games and Divergent, Swab is the gripping story of a fresh dystopian world that explores the power of choice over destiny and the decision to love despite differences.

Check Out What Others Are Saying about Heather Choate's books...

“I am so glad to have read this book. I read a lot and it’s not every day that I come across a book with a unique plot line. This book really had my interest and I could hardly put it down. This action packed book follows Cat’s journey in retaliation against the scarb, who have tragically taken everything from her. I kept trying to predict what was going to happen but this plotline kept me guessing.

I was delighted that this book not only contains thrilling adventures but at its core is a beautiful romance. What impressed me was the way that the characters came alive. I felt like I was right there with Cat battling the scarb. Beyond the action in this book there are also some important lessons that the reader can learn from. Perhaps most interesting to me was the theme of one’s sense of self and their inner strength. I can’t wait for the sequel!” —Louisana

“A great novel. Heather Choate weaves a sci-fi tale that you will get lost in. She transports you to a new world with the descriptive language. Characters become friends, you root for the society she's created and can't put it down for one second. Everything you want as a reader, Heather Choate delivers. Loved it and can't wait for more from this author” — Jason Clark

“Heather has masterfully and skillfully weaved the imagery of an entirely new kind of world, rich with entrancing and vivid details and an awesome plot. Every time a chapter ends, I absolutely had to find out what happens next. With just the right mixture of emotional drama, action, and a story that sucks you in with every change of scene, I am beyond anxious and excited to find out how the sequel turns out. If someone makes a movie out of this, I will be at the theater hours before the box office opens to get the best seat. If you liked Hunger Games, Harry Potter or the Mortal Instruments series, this is just as unique, exciting, and original if not more!” — Thepulsiphyer

Again, if you'd like to help support breast cancer research and awareness, pick up a copy on Amazon today.

Baby Kiery is Here!

Kiery’s Birth Story

Written January 7, 2015

 (I can't upload pictures for some reason, maybe its the hospital WiFi?  Anyway, I'll post pics soon!)

Sitting alone in the hospital room waiting for the moment when the nurse will bring my baby back to me.  I haven’t seen her or held her for thirty-five hours.  I’ve been counting down every minute.  Only three hours left to go.  My thoughts have been with her constantly, wondering how she is, if she’s crying and if she knows how much I love her.  The staff says she’s been doing good but there’s nothing like knowing that for myself.  I firmly believe that newborns need their mother more than anyone and so its been difficult being separated, but I know its what’s best for her.  Like Ben said last night, “It’s the right thing to do, but that doesn’t mean its easy.”  I laughed and said, “That sounds like the theme of this year.”  He agreed.

So, this is why I’m sitting her alone and my precious daughter is in isolation in the nursery.  Last week, Ben got sick from Micah and one by one all the kids got it too.  They had high fevers, terrible coughs, runny noses and were very lethargic and run down.  I took care of the family all week, late nights, little sleep and constant tending.  Then, on Saturday night, I started feeling ill.  By Sunday morning, I was completely sick with one of the most intense illness I’ve ever experienced.  Sunday night I ran a fever of 100 to 103 degrees that did not respond much to Tylenol.  I called the midwife and she told me to come in the next morning to evaluate me and the baby.  Well, I woke up on Monday and my fever had broken, but I started bleeding.  I also had several strong contractions.  We rushed to get a good friend to watch the kids for us and went to the hospital. 

The nurses immediately got the baby on the monitor and then swabbed me to test for influenza.  I continued to have strong but irregular contractions.  The results came back from the swab and I tested positive for influenza.  They got me on Tamiflu as well as sent in a prescription for Ben and all of the children.  They explained we would have to be on the medication for 48 hours before we wouldn’t be considered contagious.  I took the first dose at about 11:30 a.m. 

They continued to monitor the baby for several more hours.  We could have been discharged earlier, but they weren’t seeing the fluctuations in her heartbeat that they wanted to see to show that she was really thriving.  This continued late into the afternoon and they became more concerned about her.  They ordered an ultrasound to get a better idea of how she was doing.  It was a thirty minute test where they measure different things to see her vitality.  She got 6 out of 8 points and so failed the test.  The midwife came in and explained that typically at this point, they would induce me and deliver the baby, but because I was still contagious for influenza, they didn’t want to risk it.  Our goal was try to hold off delivery for the 48 hours.  She said I should come in on Wednesday and be induced at that point if she still wasn’t doing well.

So, we went home after a long day in the hospital, eager to see our children and get some rest.  We thanked our friend who had watched the kids all day for us, and then Ben took care of the kids while I went to lay down and rest as was still having occasional strong contractions.  I laid down just after nine and it felt so good to finally rest in my own bed.  I had fallen asleep for no more than ten minutes than I woke up with a really strong contraction.  I noted the time and went back to sleep.  Six minutes later, I was awaken again.  This continued on for about thirty minutes.  The contractions came closer and stronger but I tried to relax and keep labor at bay.  Ben laid down after cleaning the kitchen and taking care of Naomi who woke up still really sick.  He’d almost fallen asleep when I knew there was no way we could stall this labor.  I told him we needed to go to the hospital, even though I was reluctant to make that decision.  I didn’t want to go all the way back there only to find out it wasn’t real labor.  I told him, “I so just want to go to bed and get some rest.”  But another contraction later, I knew there was no other option.  This baby was coming.  I felt completely drained from being so sick, getting little rest and a full day in the hospital when I laid down, but something amazing happened.  I felt an incredible reserve of strength of energy that I cannot account for.  I know the Lord blessed me.  I felt his Spirit and his calm and knew that though this was the exact time we didn’t want her to come, it was going to be okay.  This was in his hands and she was coming at the right time for her. 

Ben called his brother and asked him to come home to watch the kids for us.  We packed and I did my deep breathing to get through the powerful contractions.  Micah showed up and we left, hoping our still-sick kids would be okay through the night.  The car ride was difficult.  I never like being confined to a seat during labor.  Ben put on his blinkers and floored it and I didn’t mind.  I knew she was coming quickly. 

When we got to the hospital, the nurse wanted to put us back on the monitor.  I agreed as long as I could get into the birthing tub as soon as possible.  I knelt in tabletop on the bed while they monitored the baby.  They checked me and I was already 6-7 centimeters dilated.   The nurse wasn’t happy with baby’s heartbeat again.  She wanted to keep me on the monitor, but I was in hard labor and I wanted in the water!  She said it was important to stay on the monitor so they would know if baby needed to come sooner.  I told her, “Well, if you want the baby to come sooner, then let me get in the tub, I’ll relax and she’ll come faster.”  She was still resistant but told me, “I can’t stop you if you’re going to.”  I told Ben to go fill up the tub and despite what the nurse wished, I got off the monitor and into the tub.  The water felt so good and was so relaxing. 

The midwife came in and told me she really would prefer I get back on the monitor, so they would know how she was doing.  I let her finish her spiel and as soon as she was done, I told her, “I feel pushy.”  But I wanted her to check me.  She said with some surprise, “You’re fully dilated, you can push when you feel like doing so.”  It didn’t surprise me.  I breathed through another contraction, then had her break the water.  As Ben was helping me get back onto all fours, I felt an incredible urge to push.  Her head crowned and one push later, she was born right into Ben’s hands.  He and the midwife brought the baby up out of the water and onto my chest.  She immediately began crying as I held her close to me.  They got a mask on me and I got to hold my little Kiery for about ten minutes.   She had a full head of dark hair, a round face with chubby cheeks and a double chin.  She opened her eyes and blinked up at me.  Her body was perfectly whole and healthy.  She was beautiful.  It was one of the sweetest, most breath-taking moments of my life.  There really are no words for that kind of emotion, joy and Spirit.  Ben said, “Every time you deliver, the Spirit is so strong.”  I felt the heaven’s near.

I carried her out of the tub and we went back to the bed with warm blankets for both of us.  After the placenta was delivered, the midwife allowed Ben to cut the cord.  Then, they took Kiery and weighed and measured her.  She was 8 lbs 6 oz and 19 inches.  They wrapped her up and then the nurse let me take one last look.  Then I had to say goodbye and they took her to the nursery.   Ben and I haven’t seen or held her since.  The nurses took pictures with our phones of her first bath and then again last night as she slept in the nursery so we could see how she was doing.  Tears are streaming down my face right now.  I love her.  I miss her.  I am grateful she is here.  I am grateful the Lord has blessed and sustained both of us through this journey.  She is whole.  She is healthy.  It goes without saying that she is living proof that a baby can be born normal and healthy despite their mother being treated for cancer.  I bore her despite the difficulty of everything we’ve gone through.  I imagined her coming into this world and immediately being with me, but I guess there was yet another challenge we’d have to surmount.  But we’re almost there now and she will very soon be in my arms and mine forever.

She is worth every sacrifice.  She is my child.  The Lord gave her to me and blessed me to be her mother.  That is a joy and a responsibility I will forever cherish and strive to fulfill to the upmost degree.  Motherhood is sacred.  I am grateful and humbled to be so blessed to have precious Kiery as my daughter.  She is strong and sweet and good.  I am excited to see what things the Lord and life have in store for our future.

 

Breast Cancer Kills... My Message of Awareness and Prevention

At the benefit concert I met the mother of a young woman who died from my type of cancer just after giving birth to her son.  She was 28 years old and pregnant when she was diagnosed with cancer.  So similar to me.  But the timing of her cancer was different than mine.  They found it at the beginning of the first trimester.  They couldn't do chemo until she was twelve weeks along.  In that time, the cancer spread to her liver.  She was able to deliver her son but she passed away shortly after that.

Just a few short weeks can make such a difference with this type of cancer during pregnancy.  It makes me grateful for the timing of my diagnosis and treatment.  If things had been just a little bit different, my story could end similar to hers.  I am grateful to the Lord for prompting me and my caregivers to take quick action.

Dr. Borges said one of the dangers of cancer in young women is that the OBGYN or family doctors dismiss the lumps or symptoms they find due to the amount of changes the breast tissue goes through during child bearing years, just like I thought at first.  I thought my lump was probably due to weaning from nursing and then becoming pregnant again.  A lot of health professionals dismiss it for the same reasons.  Because it is so rare for young women to develop breast cancer, they don’t encourage them to get further testing.  Women don’t get annual mammograms until 45.  For all these reasons, breast cancer is often missed in its early and more treatable stages in young women. 


According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention:

Breast Cancer Statistics

Not counting some kinds of skin cancer, breast cancer in the United States is—

• The most common cancer in women, no matter your race or ethnicity.
• The most common cause of death from cancer among Hispanic women.
• The second most common cause of death from cancer among white, black, Asian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian/Alaska Native women.
  For more information, visit Cancer Among Women.
  In 2011 (the most recent year numbers are available)—

• 220,097 women and 2,078 men in the United States were diagnosed with breast cancer.*†
• 40,931 women and 443 men in the United States died from breast cancer.*†

I am so grateful my midwife didn’t mess around with it but got me in quickly for an ultrasound.  I remember the sonographer telling me, “It’s probably nothing to be concerned about, but I would like the breast specialist to take a look at it just to be sure.”  I’m grateful she didn’t dismiss it either.  The breast specialist looked at the ultrasound and decided right then to do a biopsy, “Just to be safe,” even though he said that, “the probability of it being anything serious in a woman your age and in your health is so rare.”  Any one of these people could have dismissed me.  I am so grateful that they did not.  I hope that a greater awareness and preventive measures are taken by the medical community and young women themselves.  It is rare.  But it is deadly.  Especially for young women who are or can become pregnant with the hormone positive breast cancer.

I am deeply grateful that my cancer was caught when it was and everything has worked out as well as it has.  My strength is returning after the last treatment and the baby is growing and doing well.  I love feeling her kicks and movements inside of me.  My heart goes out to that mother who lost her daughter.  I didn’t have any words for her.  It had to be painful to see me and relive memories of her daughter.  Times like that make me realize again what a fine line we walk between life and death.

   

This is a very valuable article from www.cancer.org about breast cancer in young women and during pregnancy:

Pregnancy and Breast Cancer

Having breast cancer during pregnancy is very rare. But more and more women are choosing to have children later in life, and the risk of breast cancer goes up as women get older. Because of this, doctors expect there will be more cases of breast cancer during pregnancy in the future.

Breast cancer is found in about 1 in every 3,000 pregnant women. And breast cancer is the most common type of cancer found during pregnancy, while breastfeeding, or within the first year of delivery. You may hear this called gestational breast cancer or pregnancy-associated breast cancer (PABC). The special concerns of breast cancer during pregnancy are reviewed here.

Breast cancer risk

What is cancer?

The body is made up of trillions of living cells. Normal body cells grow, divide into new cells, and die in an orderly way. In babies and children, normal cells divide more quickly until the person becomes an adult. After that, cells in most parts of the body divide only to replace worn-out or dying cells and to repair injuries.

Cancer starts when cells in a part of the body start to grow out of control. Instead of dying, they outlive normal cells and keep making new, abnormal cells. Cancer cells keep growing out of control, and invade (grow into) other tissues – something normal cells can’t do.

Hormones like estrogen help normal breast cells grow and divide, but these same hormones can also promote the growth of breast cancer cells.

How your menstrual cycles affect your breast cancer risk

Women who have had more menstrual cycles because they started their periods earlier (before age 12) and/or went through menopause later (after age 55) have a slightly higher risk of breast cancer. The increase in risk may be due to a longer lifetime exposure to the hormones estrogen and progesterone.

How pregnancy affects breast cancer risk later in life

Pregnancy causes many hormone changes in the body. For one thing, pregnancy stops monthly menstrual cycles and shifts the hormone balance toward progesterone rather than estrogen. This is why women who become pregnant while they are young and have many pregnancies may have a slightly lower risk of breast cancer later on. They are exposed to less estrogen. Women who have had no children or who had their first pregnancy after age 30, on the other hand, have a slightly higher breast cancer risk.

How breastfeeding affects breast cancer risk

Some studies suggest that breastfeeding may slightly lower breast cancer risk. This is more likely if a woman breastfeeds for 1½ to 2 years. But this has been a difficult area to study, especially in countries like the United States, where breastfeeding for this long is uncommon.

One way to explain this possible effect may be that breastfeeding reduces a woman’s total number of lifetime menstrual cycles. This is much like starting menstrual periods at a later age or going through early menopause.

Finding breast cancer during pregnancy

When a pregnant woman develops breast cancer, it’s often diagnosed at a later stage than it would be if the woman were not pregnant. It’s also more likely to have spread to the lymph nodes. This is partly because hormone changes during pregnancy make a woman’s breasts larger, more tender, and lumpy. This can make it harder for the woman or her doctor to notice a lump until it gets quite large.

Another reason it may be hard to find breast cancers early during pregnancy is that pregnancy makes breast tissue denser. Dense breast tissue can hide an early cancer on a mammogram. Also, the early changes caused by cancer can be easily mistaken for the normal changes that happen with pregnancy. Delayed diagnosis remains one of the biggest problems with breast cancer in pregnancy.

If you find a lump or notice any changes in your breasts, take it seriously. If your doctor doesn’t want to check it out with tests such as a mammogram, ask about other kinds of imaging tests or get a second opinion. Any suspicious breast changes should be biopsied before assuming they are a normal response to pregnancy.

Mammograms can find most breast cancers that start when a woman is pregnant, and it’s thought to be fairly safe to have a mammogram during pregnancy. The amount of radiation needed for a mammogram is small. And the radiation is focused on the breasts, so that most of it does not reach other parts of the body. For extra protection, a lead shield is placed over the lower part of the belly to stop radiation from reaching the womb. Still, scientists can’t be certain about the effects of even a very small dose of radiation on an unborn baby.

Even during pregnancy, early detection is an important part of breast health. Talk to your doctor or nurse about breast exams and the best time for your next mammogram. As always, if you find a lump or change in your breasts, tell your doctor or nurse right away.

You can find the full article here:http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/moreinformation/pregnancy-and-breast-cancer