By: By: Steve Del Gardo Director/Founder of Protect The Pecs www.protectthepecs.org It has been a few months since I written a blog for BullshitCancer because I started a new business venture called Del Gardo’s Taste A New Tradition. It is a cannoli business offering up to 40 different flavors. My time has been consumed in making and creating cannoli everyday for which I AM LOVING IT! One of the other reasons that I have not written in awhile is the fact that things have been bothering me about what I am seeing in the world of the breast cancer community. Every year since being diagnosed, I thought the World would…
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Life As a Flat Woman
I love having no breasts! 5 words that I never in all my 56 years thought that I’d think, let alone put down on paper.
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The Pitfalls of Dating After Cancer
By: Steve Del Gardo Dating after cancer? As one man to another, one breast cancer survivor to another, let me tell you: It’s been awful. After my cancer journey was over, I waited three years to get back in the game, because I was taking Tamoxifen and it had several side effects that wouldn’t work well with dating. You know, attractive things like … hot flashes, rage, hormonal issues, weight gain. None of those are good on a date. A woman would think I was insane, an idiot, or an insane idiot. Not good! In September of 2016, I decided to get off Tamoxifen, so I could finally reclaim…
- 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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What Does Community Look Like To Us…
Sometimes circumstances call for you to have a conversation you NEVER wanted to have, and truthfully, if everyone treated everyone else they way they would like to be treated, these types of conversation would never come up. When we set out on creating a website to tell our truths surrounding our experiences, we never envisioned other women wanting to use our platform to share their stories, or how healing their stories would be for us. We never envisioned our connections in the medical community wanting to be a part of this. We never envisioned growth so rapid that we’d need to hire help almost immediately to keep up with the…
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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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Ugliness of the Pink Ribbon
By Lora Harvey As all the air left my lungs, time stood still on June 15, 2017. And I seemingly forgot how to breathe. Only when my respiratory system took over again did I inhale.In that split second, my life began dismantling. Microscopic cracks at first, but those compound and quickly become unnegotiable divides. I was never the girl that was gonna get breast cancer. I was already diabetic; another ailment would be a cruel joke. But here I am. According to some test taken at some point along the way, I had an 11% risk of developing breast cancer over the course of my lifetime. LIFETIME. Neither BRCA1 nor…
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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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THE GRACE PROJECT AND HEALING MY SOUL
By: Mia Curtiss A few years back I was asked to participate in “The Grace Project” in Chicago. After a comedy of errors it never happened. God knew far better than me I was by no means ready to pose topless without my breasts. Fast forward two years later the opportunity presents itself again and although I’m extremely uncomfortable with how I look I knew I had to show up and own all of the healing “The Grace Project” would give my soul. Of course I thought of 922 excuses to not visit with Sondra and do the project but in the end I got on the plane and…
