Rosa Cruz is getting used to a new body — and a new life.
Cancer shifted the way she communicates with her loved ones, navigates the world and approaches her passions in life.
But the 32-year-old San Pedro resident said that she may not have made it to this point if it were not for speaking up for herself when doctors told her not to worry.
Cruz will share her story of advocacy and resilience on Aug. 16 at the Cancer Support Community South Bay’s 28th annual Celebrate Wellness fundraiser gala. The support community, a nonprofit that provides free emotional and social support programs for people impacted by cancer, continues helping her express herself throughout and after her cancer journey.
In 2020, Cruz visited her doctor to address a ball she felt on the roof of her mouth, as well as feeling ill. But her complaints, she said, were not taken seriously.
“They told me, ‘It’s just stress, it’s allergies, it’ll go away on its own,’” Cruz said, “but I knew that was not normal for me.”
And the mass in her mouth rapidly got bigger.
Nearly a year later, after continually advocating for a deeper look into what she was going through, Cruz was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, on the roof of her mouth.
“I thought, ‘Yeah, I’m young, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get sick,” Cruz said. “I was pushing doctors to do their job … advocating so hard.”
Although she’d had a gut feeling that something was wrong, she was still shocked to hear the words. Cruz was overwhelmed with sadness, but also relief that there was finally a diagnosis — something she could work to heal from.
“I really didn’t want to believe that I had cancer,” Cruz said.
“I just want to live a 27-year-old life,” she added about she thought at the time.
Doctors hoped chemotherapy, which she started in 2021 after the diagnosis, would shrink the tumor — but Cruz said that route was not successful.
One set of doctors told her the tumor was too big to operate on, she said. They weren’t supportive, she said, and would not refer her to a specialist for further help.
Desperate to find a solution as treatments weren’t working, Cruz sought a second opinion from an oncologist that quickly set up a removal surgery. The oncologist, she said, was just as shocked as she was to hear that the other doctors would not perform the procedure.
Surgeons removed the tumor and and some of her top teeth in April 2022, Cruz said, but it turned out some cancer was still left behind. In June that year, surgeons removed the rest of her top teeth to ensure all the cancer was gone, and reconstructed the roof of her mouth with bone from her leg.
It was a long process, with complications along the way that caused her to stay in the hospital for two months, and in the intensive-care unit for three weeks of that time. Once she was discharged to go home and recover, Crus said, she was happy.
And Cruz has been cancer-free since 2022.
“If I had not gotten a second opinion,” Cruz said, “I’m not sure where I’d be.”
A social worker on Cruz’s palliative care team while she was still undergoing treatment told her about the Cancer Support Community South Bay. Cruz started participating in virtual support groups, then attending fitness classes, knitting and crocheting workshops, and more of the free services provided at CSC.
“I needed support outside of my family and friends,” Cruz said. “I needed space where I can truly share how I felt diving into these treatments.”
The culture and beliefs within her Mexican American family, Cruz said, has made it more difficult to share her experience with family members and friends — especially because no one close to her has experienced cancer before.
“I feel like if I were to really share how I felt, it would’ve scared my family into thinking I was, in a way, giving up, when really, I just needed a space to share how it was making me feel,” Cruz said. “If I noticed they’re uncomfortable with me saying what I’ve been through, I try to suppress my emotions just to make them feel comfortable.”
The Cancer Support Community gave her that space, she added, one where she doesn’t have to hold back.
“They were just really helpful in understanding the questions to ask,” Cruz said, “(affirming) it’s OK to advocate for myself and understanding what I was going through.”
With no family history of cancer, she initially had no one she knew to turn to for guidance or advice.
But at CSC, she had people her understood.
“I just enjoyed really being around other people who went through cancer,” Cruz said. “I felt like I could just be myself.
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