[Ohio-Talk] Thank you

[President Capital chapter]

Good evening NFB of Ohio family,

I just wanted to take the opportunity to thankthose of you who have given me well wishes and most of all prayer after learning of my surgery. I so much appreciate it and it feels good to know about so many people caring.

 I did not share this with many of you publicly, but a week or so before state convention, I found out that I had early stage breast cancer. As I know, so many of my Federation Family have dealt with cancer diagnosis either with yourselves or with loved ones, so I know you can appreciate how this make somebody feel. At first, I was kind of scared, but then I realized I was also very fortunate. It appears that we caught the diagnosis early. so, yesterday, I underwent a lumpectomy surgery to remove it. They also removed one of my lymph nodes to test it to make sure that the cancer has not spread. I hope to get the results from that in the next day or so. God willing, if it has not spread, then, in a few weeks, I will undergo radiation treatments for several weeks, and then have to take medication for several years, and hopefully that will be the end of it. If it has spread, and so far there is no indication of that,  Then I will probably have more to do. But I so much appreciate all of your prayers that you have sent up for me. I know no matter what that helps.

Like I said, I was fairly reluctant to share this with anybody. I did keep it very private for a long time with pretty much only my immediate family knowing.  But as I have gotten more used to the idea, I did want to share Mostly for a couple of reasons. First of all, I want to be there to help anybody else who may get a similar diagnosis. If anybody wants to talk in the future, please know they can reach out to me. Secondly,  I want to stress the importance to all of you to do routine cancer screenings. I had no indication of breast cancer until I took a routine mammogram, and the test did exactly what it’s designed to do, spot something early. For all we know, this routine mammogram has saved my life. So please, please do not put routine test off. I have learned how important they are.

 Thank you again to all of you for being there. I cannot express enough how much it means to me.

Take care.

Annette. 

Annette Lutz
President
Capital Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio
614-288-4323
President.capital.nfboh at gmail.com

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. Everyday we raise the expectations of blind people because we know that low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want, blindness is not what holds you back.