What does healing mean to you?

I have been asked this question so many times while on my breast cancer journey by others and myself.   I have had some time to ponder this.  Healing for me has been finding and nurturing meaningful connection with my whole self... the physic...

I was a little nervous.  I took a deep breath and began to dial her number.  I didn't know her - here I was calling a complete stranger to ask her about something as personal as her Breast Cancer experience. She was a friend of a friend; someone that I was told I must talk t...

Healing is... ongoing

It felt like my heart dropped into my stomach.  The voicemail message that was left instructed me to call the breast clinic back ASAP.  They said that an ultrasound was needed for further evaluation after my recent annual mammogram.  This brought back ...

"Hold up... Wait... What?" my mind whispers in the background.  A gray, dense brain "fog" covers everything like a weighted blanket to bear while I desperately search for a response to his question.  I am starting to sweat.  The pressure is expanding by the second.  I am ins...

The Loss

The wastebasket next to the bathroom vanity was gaining more of my hair each passing day. "That seems like a lot of hair today", I whispered faintly.   As my stomach clenched with each look in the mirror, as I desperately pat the sections of hair left hoping no mor...

Communicating our news to others can be stressful and a bit overwhelming.  I found it very helpful to be intentional about my tone, the timing, places, people, and the message itself ahead of time.

These 5 areas helped me prepare to share my diagnosis and ongoing updates:

I was holding my breath, waiting for a reply.  What did they think?  Did they like the changes we made to their website design?  After what felt like an hour (which was really just seconds), Mary spoke up for the team and stated that they loved all of the changes and just wa...

 The "List"

Every day when I woke up, I would already feel late for something, like I was running behind schedule.  There was this list of things that I felt "must be done" already running through my mind or the unchecked boxes from my planner staring at me - and the list w...

What do I need ... or want for that matter?

Your friends, family, colleagues, and community members will want to support you when you are going through cancer diagnosis overwhelm, treatments, surgeries, or recovery. They will ask how to support you and you may struggle for ...

My Unexpected Chapter

Not long after a routine mammogram in November 2020, I sat down in my living room and answered the call from the breast clinic. What came next, I never expected. There was a 95%+ chance that they found cancer. I would need to come in for a biopsy AS...

Ooops, I did it AGAIN!

OH NO!  I forgot to ask my Oncologist during my appointment today about the pain in my joints that seems to be getting worse ... "Could it be related to my chemo treatments or is it more possibly a result of the new hormone blockers?"  (sigh)...

H...

Cancer = Change

Processing the information of a breast cancer diagnosis is overwhelming in and of itself.  On top of that overwhelm and all the emotions I was going through, I then had to schedule appointments with the surgeon, for a Covid test, for port installation for ch...