As for me - I've never met you, I'll be damned if I let you hurt anyone that way ever again.
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A Day In the Life of a Stage IV Breast Cancer Patient
Thinking About Cancer Patient Safety October 20, 2018 By Leah Taylor Today’s edition of A Day in the Life of a Stage IV Breast Cancer Patient is me thinking about patient safety and three stories about this issue rather than the usual timeline. I saw a question asked by a cyber friend wondering what the “worst” thing that has happened since “my” breast cancer diagnosis. I found myself thinking of an issue that I discovered early on in my breast cancer experience, patient safety. It’s something commonly dealt with but I have not seen discussed openly. It’s a fact that a cancer diagnosis opens the patient up to being victimized…
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Stand Up For Your Beliefs
By: Steve Del Gardo For the last several years, well mostly the last 5 years, I have read many articles, posts on social media on how people are imposing their beliefs on others when it involves cancer. Telling us how to use certain words to describe our cancer journey or how we should feel. Telling us not to use certain words or how we should live our lives. I have also come to realize that there are lot of negative people in our cancer circle more than the positive ones. And sometimes, well most of the time, these two forces fight against each other. IT NEEDS TO STOP! ALL…
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Reinventing Yourself After Cancer: What is Your Passion?
By: Steve Del Gardo It has been 5 ½ years since I have been diagnosed with breast cancer and since then I have been advocating for my cancer foundation, Protect The Pecs, in an effort to raise awareness about male breast cancer. It hasn’t been easy but yet I have found it has been rewarding in knowing that the message is finally getting received globally through speeches to writing articles for various blogs…..however, I want to do more with my life. It has been established that Steve Del Gardo is a breast cancer survivor, but I don’t want that to define my existence. I am more than that. I am…
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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…
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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…
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A Glitch
By: Beatrice Compagnon On learning to live with a body you didn’t choose. “Don’t worry, it is just a little bit of cancer. We will get you better in no time.” These weren’t the words I expected to hear on my 37th birthday. Ok, it’s not invasive, stage zero — that should be easy to fix, right? No chemo, no radiation – just a lumpectomy. Oh wait, the margins are not clear so a mastectomy it is. Well, Doc, if we do one side, let’s do both; I don’t want to end up with two different breasts. Nor do I want to be screened every three months for the…
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If You Harbor Body Hate and Body Love, Which Will You Feed?
Do you know the parable “The Tale of Two Wolves?” A grandfather is talking with his granddaughter. He tells her there are two wolves inside each of us which are always at war with each other. One of them is a good wolf, representing things like kindness, bravery and love. The other is a bad wolf, representing things like greed, hatred and fear. The granddaughter stops and thinks about that for a moment, then looks up at her grandfather and asks, “Grandfather, which one wins?” The grandfather quietly replies, “The one you feed.” _______________________________________________ Shortly after my diagnosis was confirmed, I shared the news with someone who later uttered this…
