Breast cancer is ubiquitous. With nearly 3 million survivors in the United States alone, we all know someone who has, or had, the disease.
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- BREAST CANCER, BREAST CANCER AWARENESS, COMMUNITY, MALE BC, MEN GET BC, MENT GET BC TOO, metastatic breast cancer
A Thought On Divisions: A Day In The Life of a Stage IV Breast Cancer Patient
A Thought on Divisions October 31, 2018 By Leah Taylor I’ve been thinking about an issue I’ve noticed in the breast cancer community over the last eight years. Eight years you say? Yup, eight years. Interesting story… about 5 months after diagnosis #1 in my breast cancer story in the fall of 2010, I went to a famous breast cancer website and went to the stage IV area to ask a valid question. (I went to the stage IV area because I was told I had an 87% chance of a second primary diagnosis or a very high chance of mets, etc…due to a BRCA mutation issue.) At that time,…
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A Day in the Life – Stage IV
By: Leah Taylor What you are about to read is my experience from September 25, 2018. It could be quite difficult to read for anyone dealing with breast cancer. It is raw and real. 6:15 a.m. I wake up. The bed leaves me stiff but I am grateful for my son and his family and their extra bed. So, I slept reasonably well considering I wasn’t in my own home. I stopped at my son’s after being released from the hospital last night. After a four day stay, it was too late to make it home without it getting dark on the drive home. I can’t drive safely after dark…
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And So It Begins – The First Hurry Up & Wait Cycle
By: Evidence Based NP October 4, 2017 – Approximately 4 weeks ago, as I was showering, I felt that weird sensation that something was strange with my right outer breast. There was no lump or definitive change. Just a weird tenderness I never felt before. I was super busy with work trying to prove my current position could be profitable and I didn’t feel I could take off to have it checked out by my primary care provider. I also turned 40 this year and had my routine mammogram back in May of 2017. It was negative for any abnormality. I blew off the weird tenderness as something related to…
- BODY POSITIVE, BREAST CANCER, BREAST CANCER AWARENESS, Children with a Chronically Ill Parent, Family, LIFE AFTER BREAST CANCER, RECLAIMING MY BODY
Through Her Daughter’s Eyes…
By: Kinsey I don’t remember the first time my mom had a lumpectomy, because I was only 6 weeks old. It’s so hard to wrap my head around that because she was only 5 years older than I am right now. She was only 20 years old and had a brand new baby. Can anyone really wrap their head around that? My mom has been through so much throughout her adult life. The first time I was old enough to actually understand that my mom was having a recurrence and would need to have a bilateral mastectomy, I was 7 years old, and in the 2nd grade. I was too…
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Debunking the Myths and Fears of Lymphedema
By: Jenni Rai, PT, CLT When I initially began working with women who had breast cancer, I was often the first person to mention “lymphedema” to them. This was in 2005, and at the time we Physical Therapists and Certified Lymphedema Therapists (at least the ones I worked with) perceived breast surgeons to find lymphedema insulting. A sort of, “I didn’t screw up! YOU don’t have LYMPHEDEMA!” Despite all of the credible research and acceptance in Europe, lymphedema seemed to be the “red headed step child” of Western Medicine, which unfortunately left patients under informed. Somewhere during the last 13 years, I’ve noticed a change. More often than not, when…
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We Belong To One Another
Mia’s bilateral mastectomy was in 2007, and mine was in 2010. Numerous times since then, we’ve both had people say to us, “Can’t you just get over it?”, and other similar comments. We know there are women both in treatment and post-treatment that hear these same words every single day. And we also know words like that can cause a woman shame due to her wondering why she isn’t ‘over it’ already. It has to stop. Women (and men) who are faced with the reality of a breast cancer diagnosis already have enough worry and fear on their plates, they don’t need anyone – inner circle or acquaintance – adding…
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HEALING THE WHOLE WOMAN
One can’t imagine the stigma, loneliness, pain and sometimes embarrassment that comes with cutting off your breasts. Women are “known” for their breasts – after all that’s what makes a woman beautiful and voluptuous, right?! So losing them can be a major blow to one’s heart and soul. There isn’t much, if any, information out there on how to heal one’s soul from the loss of your breasts. It’s just a brushed over subject that no one in the industry wants to entertain. That’s breast cancer information, in general, and so many people don’t realize what women are actually dealing with on a daily basis. There are women walking around…
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THINGS I WISH I HAD KNOWN PRIOR TO MY MASTECTOMY
A mastectomy, either single or double, is a common treatment for women with breast cancer. I asked some of my friends to contribute to the conversation, and this is the information that many from the breast community wish they had known. 1. I wish I had taken pictures documenting procedure and recovery, and journaled. There’s so much I have forgotten! (I am a firm believer that our mind clouds our memory sometimes to allow us to heal from trauma, but there is still so much healing that can come from the remembering.) 2. More support from other women who went thru this…You find out you have cancer and without catching…
- BODY POSITIVE, BREAST CANCER, BREAST CANCER AWARENESS, FLAT CLOSURE NOW, FLATTIES UNITE, LIFE AFTER BREAST CANCER, MASTECTOMY, RECLAIMING MY BODY
It Changed Me
I never thought I’d be that girl that would pose topless for photos…..
