MASON, OH (FOX19) -
Karyn Ganaway-Balog lives her life in a bit of organized chaos.
A happy healthy 43-year-old, Ganaway-Balog is a four year breast cancer survivor, in many ways starting her life over.
"I went through chemo for 18 weeks and then I had radiation after that, it was all just one right after the other," says Ganaway-Balog.
Diagnosed in 2007 with stage three breast cancer she had a bilateral masectomy and breast reconstruction. She says the surgeries and her recovery was a wake-up call to re-prioritize her life.
"I was a new wife, my husband and I, we hadn't been married a year yet when I got the diagnosis so it was like, 'Wow', things are going to change,'" says Ganaway-Balog.
Major changes that turned her world around. She left a "lucrative" career in pharmaceutical sales to battle breast cancer head on and during her fight realized the reason behind her diganosis.
"I remember sitting on my couch out there, bald as all get out, no eyelashes, no eyebrows, feeling real real sorry for myself and doing one of those mad at God moments, like why me?"
"And this is what came to me, I literally like asked that question, 'why me?', and I got, 'why not you?'"says Ganaway-Balog.
The "why not you?" is what pushed her back to school at the University of Cincinnati's College of Nursing where she is working on a Master's degree to be a nurse practitioner.
Her experience changed more than her profession, her daughter, Ally Ganaway says her mom is a better person and more confident in herself.
"We're a lot closer now and like we all have more support for each other than we did before," says Ganaway.
Her brother Mark Weisgerber also expressed a noticeable change in his sister.
"She doesn't dwell on the fact that she's a cancer survivor. I've just noticed that her outlook on life, she lives more in the present then in the past or the future," says Weisgerber
Ready to live in the present, Ganaway-Balog also works for the Susan G. Komen Foundation where she started "A Place to Heal", a program to help survivors.
"It's every bit as devastating as when you first get the diagnosis as when you're done and you're like 'what do I do next?'"
So in between her hours at the clinic, with her children and at the foundation, Ganaway-Balog is finding the time to live her life like never before, one chaotic moment at a time.
This isn't a curse, this is a blessing and I have things to offer and this is how I'm going to get there."
For more information about "A Place to Heal",. go here: http://placetoheal.org/index.htm
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