INDY PROUDLY PRESENTS:

NOVEMBER WARRIOR: JENNIFER + BRYAN MONAHAN

There are moments in life that everyone remembers. The day your child was born.... the day they move away to college.... or the painful details of the day the love of your life was diagnosed with cancer. My husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January 2017. It wasn't just any old cancer.... it had to be pancreatic cancer with its abysmal 5% survival rate. After hearing his diagnosis, Bryan and I kicked things into serious mode. Appointments at the Mayo Clinic were made and I made it clear to anyone that would listen that he was here to play: he wasn't going to sit on the sidelines and let this disease take him in 6 months the way it has taken so many others. After 6 months of the worst chemo imaginable and enough radiation to power every light bulb in our house, he miraculously went into remission. For a full 4 months life was good. We celebrated and lived our lives and talked about what we would do over the summer when we didn't have a chemo schedule to plan around. This went on until the day I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was time to put our game faces back on. My cancer was much easier to navigate. A quick little surgery to get new boobs and a hysterectomy just to be on the safe side (since I'm a carrier of the BRCA-1 gene mutation). A little healing and a few tears later and it looked like we'd be back to making plans. Unfortunately, cancer had another idea. Bryan's cancer came back in the same location and chemo was started again immediately. Bryan's cancer journey is a tough one, but he continues to fight. He's been fighting for a year and a half, while most people with his type of cancer are gone in 6 months. He does it all while taking care of his wife through her cancer and never lets it show how tired he actually is. He paints the deck and mows the lawn if only to feel like he's still "normal." He continues to fight, even though at times it feels like a losing battle. However, even when you're down by 20 in the 3rd quarter, you can still come back and win. If I know anything about my husband, he has every intention of winning.