Local woman shares ‘terrifying’ breast cancer journey for awareness

Emily Ortega is a local nurse and mother who was diagnosed with breast cancer -- now she wants others to know to never wait or hesitate.

"It's terrifying, it's terrifying to be going through that type of journey," said Ortega.

She found a lump in her breast at 38 years old, and didn't think it could be cancer at first.

"I didn't believe it, I didn't know," said Ortega. "It's just my mind, 'Did I hit myself? Is this real?'"

Her diagnosis, Stage 1 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, is the most common breast cancer in women.

They also found it in her lymph nodes.

Ortega describes that moment with her doctor like an "atomic bomb going off."

"You can feel it, it's like this impending sense of doom that's coming at you," she said.

She had a double mastectomy done in July. 

"I've literally gone through the stages of grief," she continued. "I just try and focus on the positive."

This year she says was supposed to be a vacation for her and her kids, but instead, it turned into uncertainty.

"They missed out on good memories, good summer memories, and I have this obligation to make it up to them."

But that's not her only goal once she gets through this. As many bad days she has, she tries hard to remain positive.

She hopes to go into oncology as a nurse or research, become a advocate for those with cancer.

Her mother put on a car show to bring the community together to raise funds for her treatment.

It left Ortega shocked on how much strangers can care about each other.

"It was more of a sense of community and a sense of support that I felt," she said. "And me going into my sessions this week, it it gives me a little bit of like, 'okay, you got this, you got this.'"

She's also BRCA 2 positive, which means she's susceptible to ovarian and pancreatic cancer -- something she says she will have to deal with eventually, but her priority is beating breast cancer.

If you'd also like to support Ortega, go to her GoFundMe page, here.