On a Wednesday afternoon, Veronica Pockrandt’s phone began to ring.

It was the call she had been waiting for since finding two lumps in her left breast. After a mammogram and biopsy, Pockrandt could do little else but wait, giving her mind plenty of time to prepare for the worst.

Still it did not make the words that followed any easier to hear. 

“We have some bad news …,” the doctor said.

“My brain just shut down,” Pockrandt recalled.

She then turned to her husband Rob to share the news.

“I have cancer,” she said.

Pockrandt was diagnosed with breast cancer at the beginning of June, just before her 35th birthday.

Since then, the Niles mother of four, Alex, Bradley, Caiden and Dakoda, has finished her sixth and final chemotherapy treatment and will have an operation to remove two tumors on Nov. 21. After her surgery, radiation treatments are expected to follow. 

Every three weeks, Pockrandt was given a chemotherapy treatment. The side effects would follow like clockwork: first the exhaustion, then the aching.

“It’s like your whole body just hurts, from your head to your toes,” Pockrandt said.

Even her teeth and the follicles on her scalp ached. She likened the symptoms to fighting a flu that just would not go away.

But those who know Pockrandt, know she is not easily kept down.

Despite feeling, sick, tired or just plain frustrated, Pockrandt continued to be a fixture in the community, cheering on her sons from the bleachers during a baseball game and working with members of the Four Flags Area Apple Festival board to plan the annual Apple Festival.

Being busy helped her feel normal, she said from her home on Lewis Drive in Niles. Sometimes it even helped to distract her from the symptoms, but mostly it reminded her that she was stronger than the cancer and that she would fight long and hard before she would be kept from doing the things she loved.

Searching for answers

With the world wide web at her fingertips, Pockrandt did what so many do when being diagnosed with something: she searched the internet for answers. While there was plenty of clinical information, Pockrandt struggled to find a perspective from someone who had been through cancer treatments and could add a personal take on what to expect in the months to come. Pockrandt decided to start her own blog, in the hopes that someone could benefit from her words.

“I needed a way to just get everything out of my head,” Pockrandt said. “Everything I looked for online, I could not find what to expect. Nobody was talking about what they went through and their feelings.”

Aptly named the T”ata Chronicles,” Pockrandt detailed in her blog doctor’s appointments and life at home, starting with her first treatment at the Michiana Hematology and Oncology clinic, where her husband Rob held her hand during that long and painful experience. She also talks readers through the physical and mental pain of losing her thick curly hair and having her mom, Deana Burwell, help her snip it all off.

She also addressed how one should pack for long trips while battling cancer — something she endured so that she could see her sons play baseball away from home. After one game, where she resorted to using a catcher’s mitt as pillow, because treatment made her so sleepy, she decided to help others stay prepared.

“Why didn’t someone take a picture?  I would have loved to have had that picture,” Pockrandt joked in her blog.

“Like she has a knack for doing, Pockrandt’s blog put struggle into perspective.

“Basically, you pack differently for different walks of life.,” she writes. “Single, couple, parents of babies to teens and now cancer.  It’s just a change.  It’s not permanent.  I’m looking forward to being the old couple packing to travel.  Just more changes in life that is full of change.”

Life at home

At the Pockrandt residence, something is always happening.

With four boys two dogs and a recently adopted kitten named Suri, short for survivor, solitude is not something that is easy to find at the house. But Pockrandt would not have it any other way.

In addition to being an active member of her Niles community, Pockrandt was also a Southwestern Michigan College student working toward her dream of becoming a midwife. In fact, the day after she had been told she had cancer, she got accepted into SMC’s nursing program.

With upcoming chemotherapy and a surgery ahead, Pockrandt said she knew it would be too much to handle all at once, so she put her dream on hold, but only temporarily.

“The dean said they will hold my application until next fall,” Pockrandt said.

At night, Pockrandt worked for the Elkhart Truth and delivered newspapers, until she became too sick to do so.

For the family of six, life has thrown quite a few curveballs. Pockrandt’s illness followed on the tail of several of Rob’s injuries which temporarily out him out of work for a while.

Pockrandt does have health insurance, but being out of work has left the family with many other costs. Pockrandt’s mother has started a You Caring page in response to help the family cover some of their expenses while Pockrandt is out of work.

Through all of the trials and tribulations, Pockrandt commends the strength of her family, including Burwell and her sister, Kaycie Campbell, and community for helping to get through the toughest of days, whether it be a hug from one of her sons or a neighbor dropping by to check on her. Suri, the small, jet-black kitten Pockrandt adopted, has also become part of this networking, curling up on her lap during the worst of her reactions from chemotherapy.

She also thanked organizations like the Brian Parker Foundation for helping the family financially at times, including covering the cost of school supplies for her sons. 

‘Be your own advocate’

Pockrandt said she was fortunate enough to have caught her cancer at an early stage, and she encouraged men and women alike to conduct regular breast checks. She even advised setting a phone alarm as a reminder to do this check at least once a month.

“Be your own advocate,” she said.

About two weeks after her last chemotherapy treatment, Pockrandt was ready to celebrate with an evening dancing. She called Burwell and the two headed out to hit the dance floor.

Before she left, Pockrandt adorned the hair that was beginning to grow back with a colorful headband. Reflecting on the experience that night, Pockrandt said she was proud of her strength.

“I’m not giving up,” Pockrandt said. “I’m not sitting out.  I might pace myself.  But I’m a survivor.”