AUBURN GRESHAM — Before Robin Isaac knew whether she had breast cancer, she made herself a promise that no matter what her diagnosis, she'd digest it with her favorite dessert: a hot fudge sundae.
Seven-plus years after she beat cancer and had her last radiation treatment in 2007, she still remembers the comfort it gave her and the journey to get it. Thus, her new breast cancer memoir is named, "Hot Fudge Sundae."
"It was just wonderfully soothing as I knew it would be," said Isaac remembering the beginning of the journey that inspired the 45-year-old Auburn Gresham resident to write her book.
Her battle with cancer was tougher than anything Isaac, a graduate of Jones Commercial High School graduate and the University of Illinois at Chicago, faced in Chicago, she said.
"I don't believe Chicago makes you a fighter. Cancer is bigger than anything Chicago can prep you for," she said.
Isaac, a single mother with a son in college, had discovered a lump in her breast in early 2007 and ignored it, she said.
"I didn't want to face what it might be," she said. "But when I realized it had grown larger, it snapped me out of denial. I was fearful but it still hadn't settled in until the doctor said in front of me that it was cancer."
At the meeting in June, doctors told her she had triple-negative breast cancer, a form of the disease that responds well to chemotherapy but has no additional types of treatment to keep the disease from reoccurring, she said.
"After walking out of the hospital with my mom, I was in a trance. It felt like the car was on automatic. I caught every red light," Isaac said.
Isaac ate the sundae on her journey home, finishing it as she pulled in the driveway, she said.
"The ice cream was more like Novocaine. It was numbing. [It was] one of those things you think you need to get your thoughts together at the moment," she said.
The book, which was released in the fall, journeys through her surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments from June to September 2007. Her extremely challenging year concluded with more tragedy when her father died of a heart attack, she said.
His death was a shock though he had suffered from a heart condition for years and wore a pace maker.
But the book isn't always dark, she said.
"The book isn't all crying. There's a lot of laughter and understanding of the humanity of people. There's some emotional time and there are some beautiful moments during the journey," she said.
The book is available through the website of its publisher, Tate Publishing, or can be found online at barnesandnoble.com and amazon.com.
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