The year 2004 was both an incredible and a heartbreaking year. The incredible adventures began as I was achieving a life-long goal of riding my bike cross-country. Beginning in Oregon, I rode through seven states and went over 3,000 miles before I realized that my body was giving me clues, including weight gain (even with riding 70-115 miles a day), that hinted I was pregnant. I felt energized and focused on the ride – continuing on to Pennsylvania for my new college teaching job, riding more than 3,500 miles with a baby on board.

The same day that school started, a dermatologist examined a mole that had changed earlier that year. A biopsy showed that I had melanoma and that I would have to have immediate surgery to remove the mole and the main or sentinel lymph node that it drained to -- all at 23 weeks pregnant.

Two days later, I learned that Lance Armstrong  would be in Pittsburgh. Even though I had not yet recovered from surgery, my entire family and I went. It was an overwhelming experience for me, not only to see Lance, but also to begin to think of myself as a "cancer survivor" and to be among cancer survivors as they sat in the seats with us and lined the outfield park.

Just days after my surgery, I was told that the cancer had spread to my sentinel lymph node. I had surgery again less than two weeks later. I was so worried about my baby's health. The surgeon removed eight nodes in my groin.

My oncologist told me that if clinical trials had not been conducted in relation to sentinel lymph node surgeries prior to my procedure, they might not have been able to confidently perform the surgery on a pregnant woman and identify a cancerous tumor in this node. Without clinical trials, my cancer may have been missed.

We named our healthy baby girl Viva – for living life to the fullest!