NAMPA — A breast cancer diagnosis in September caused 40-year-old Darla Dennis to realign her priorities.

Now, less than a week away from completing her treatments, the Nampa mom and businesswoman looks back on her experience with a positive attitude.

Prior to her cancer, Dennis maintained a busy schedule raising her two sons, Gabriel, 7 and Caelen, 9; running her three Coldstone Creamery locations in Nampa, Eagle and Caldwell; and helping her husband Stuart with his business, Uniglobe Travel.

"Last year when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, my life came to kind of a screeching halt," she said. "I had to step back from everything."

Treating breast cancer

Dennis discovered a lump in her left breast in August 2008. Since then, she's been through three surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, which she will finish Tuesday.

"It was a blessing that this all came at the end of the summer. My businesses' busiest time is in the summer," she said.

She added that she's also glad that she will be done with treatments in time to gear up for the upcoming influx of business as the weather warms.

After her surgeries last year, Dennis began eight chemotherapy treatments in November and suffered expected side effects: loss of hair and appetite. Treatments took place every two weeks, something she said is unusual for breast cancer, where patients typically have treatments every three weeks.

"It was quite an aggressive regime because my lump was so large and fast-growing, almost 6 centimeters," she said.

When Dennis returned, she began radiation therapy, which involved three-minute treatments every day for six weeks. Although this doesn't have the intense side effects of chemotherapy, she said it can burn the skin — hers has recently begun to burn. She also suffers from fatigue due to the treatments.

Family support

Dennis said she is grateful for the support her husband has given her during this hard time. All of her family and friends have helped her to deal with her disease.

In March, Dennis' sisters threw her a joint 40th birthday and end of chemo party to celebrate. Before she started her radiation treatments, Dennis also took a break to travel to California with her family for spring break. Her father was diagnosed with prostate cancer shortly after Dennis' own diagnosis, and her parents had traveled from their home in Oregon to California for treatment.

"It was kind of a double whammy for my family this winter," she said.

Dennis' sons have coped well with her illness — her younger son doesn't fully understand, she said, and her older son has been "extremely loving and kind and compassionate."

"When I shaved my hair, (that) was, I think, the most traumatic experience for the both them," she said.

Illness brought clarity

Dennis said the silver lining of her struggle with breast cancer has been the way it reorganized how she lived.

"I guess the positive thing out of all of this ... is that it caused me to slow down and take a step back and be able to be home and spend time with my boys," she said. "Everything I do is for them anyway — I want to be a great mom. This caused me to be home with them. I have thoroughly enjoyed that experience."

Since the beginning of her battle with cancer, Dennis has blogged about her experience on carepages.com. What began as a way to update concerned friends and family became an outlet for Dennis to release her emotions about the situation.

"Once I started, it was like I was writing it for myself. I was just pouring out my feelings on everything," she said.

Dennis wants to show other breast cancer sufferers that having a positive attitude can help to deal with the illness.

"I can show them that it's OK and that there's hope and that life doesn't stop when you get breast cancer," she said. "When I first started, it felt like it consumed you, it's all you think about. There has to come a point where that stops and you start living again.

"It's always going to be there the rest of my life, but I know that because of it, I'm a better person. I was able to step back and simplify and remember what is important."