Part 3: The Diagnosis I Didn’t Want, But Had to Face

https://www.kristaguloien.com

Now the timeline gets tight—because what followed happened fast.It was a “fool me twice” scenario.

I thought I had gone hard the first time through cancer. I had no idea what “hard” really meant.

My first round of active treatment had ended in December 2022. But this time, I had a new benchmark, a different level of clarity, and honestly… a lot more fire.

The first thing I needed was confirmation. We didn’t yet know it was cancer, but all signs pointed to it. What many people may not realize is this: in the cancer world, it’s not always about a new diagnosis—it can be a recurrence or metastatic progression of the original cancer. In my case, it was the latter: breast cancer, spread to the bone.

But we didn’t have that clarity at first.

The biopsy was taken when they reset my left humerus after the break. That surgery happened on March 27, 2024, and the pathology results came back a couple of weeks later. Oddly enough, it mirrored the timeline of my first diagnosis in spring 2022. That déjà vu was eerie.

If I’m honest, the days after the hospital were a blur.

I contacted my naturopathic clinic and let them know what was unfolding. I reached out to my surgeon’s office and asked about private PET scans—because I simply was not willing to wait. They gave me two contacts. I went with Initio Nuclear Medicine, and what started as a PET scan appointment quickly became so much more. (More on that later.)

SecondStreet.org

I had my scan on March 20th, and within days—I had the report.

And that report? It was the scariest scan I’ve ever opened.

Have you ever not wanted to know something, while also needing to know it so badly that you can’t look away? That was me. It was terrifying and gutting and necessary, all at once.

While calls with my oncologist were being scheduled and conversations were unfolding with my surgeon and naturopath, my sister Marla did something bold—she launched a GoFundMe. Because we knew. We knew I wasn’t going to settle. We were already in motion, and we were going after something bigger.

The prognosis in that moment wasn’t promising. But I had a knowing—somewhere deep inside—that healing was still possible.

That belief changed everything.

From that point forward, cosmic moments began to unfold. Conversations. Support. Hope. And then—we found it. A treatment plan that gave me a real shot. A plan that would take everything I had, but offer a real chance at life.

The months that followed were massive.

To be continued.

https://initiomedical.ca/