As a sergeant in Fordham’s business district, Agy Pena took care of a team of cops.
Now, it’s time for the team to take care of her.
The 30-year-old Queens native was diagnosed with Stage 3 brain cancer on October 22.
“I had been getting headaches too many times,” the nine-year NYPD veteran told the Post just two weeks after learning to speak again.
“I decided to go to the doctor and the doctor sent me for an MRI,” she said. “A few hours later, I went to take the disc to the doctor. He called me inside and told the horrific news — that I had a brain tumor on the left side. It was terrifying.”
The cop who got her start in rough-and-tumble Brownsville and up in the Bronx’ 48 Precinct said her mind was reeling.
“I just didn’t know what to do,” she said. “The doctor left me alone in his office. I called my mom on the verge of tears, because I didn’t want her to know.”
Pena’s mother and boyfriend accompanied her to North Shore Long Island Jewish Hospital, where she spent the next three weeks.
She survived surgery to remove 95 percent of the tumor, but she awoke unable to talk.
“If they removed the other five percent, it would have affected my motor skills,” Pena said. “When they do surgery on the left side of the brain, your right side gets weak. I couldn’t grasp anything on my right side.
Pena attended speech therapy until this month and was treated with radiation that lasted through the middle of January. She does five days of chemotherapy, followed by 28 days off to recover. She hopes to complete that grueling routine in July.
The pretty brunette is back at the gym and looking forward to regaining the strength needed for dancing her way through Zumba workouts.
“I’m feeling OK, thank God,” she said. “I’ve been able to do most of the stuff that I could do before. I’ve been able to get myself out there and do a lot of things I used to do.”
The tumor is shrinking but not without complications.
“I have liquid in my head that’s developing from we don’t know where but I’m good right now,” Pena explained.
The determined young woman who owns her own home has also racked up about $30,000 in medical bills … and counting. She has managed to stay on top of the bills while on sick leave though the lack of overtime has made it a challenge.
She refuses to go out on disability, instead opting for sick leave and looking forward to getting back.
“I’ve never found anything to be out of my reach because I always thought that I could do anything,” Pena said. “I really don’t think that cancer is my defeat. My biggest defeat was at work because I was very active at work, which I haven’t been able to get back to.”
It’s not clear right now when she’ll reach that goal.
In the meantime, the Bronx cop is looking forward to seeing some pals from the academy and work at a fundraiser in her honor in the Bronx next month.
“I haven’t been able to see them in a while,” she said, adding that her biggest source of strenght has been people she’s close with. “Friends and family because they’ve been really involved.”
kconley@nypost.com