Seven Years by Mary Beth

Shortly after midnight on Saturday my daughter and her friend gave me this beautiful card case to hold my business cards.

Sunday was my seven year anniversary as a Breast Cancer Survivor. On Friday, I ordered a cake for myself to celebrate this day.  I don’t really drink, I don’t do drugs and I have never smoked and I still got cancer… so yes I eat sugar.

I asked my closest friend in California, (who was literally the first person to hear the news as the Doctor called me at work) to come over and celebrate with me.

The day started out a little later than I had planned, I was running late for church and the chapel that I attend is very small and difficult to sneak in late. I decided to go to the church that we belonged to when we first moved here (and during my treatment) as their mass starts 15 minutes later. This parish had been talking and planning and raising money to build a new church when we became members. I do believe things happen for a reason and as I sat in the church I became very reflective on the past 7 years. I sat in the old church and prayed to heal and survive when I was sick. Now 7 years later I sat in this new church and so thankful that I am still here.

Cancer changed my life forever, not all bad, but changed nonetheless. I am healed on the outside, but sometimes the emotional side still creeps up on me. A few months back I had a “touch-up” procedure done. Before I left work for the appointment I looked at myself in the mirror and thought outwardly, most people that I meet now, have no idea that I am a cancer survivor. My hair has grown in and they can’t tell that it is much thinner than before. My eyebrows and my eyelashes have grown back and my eyelashes hold mascara again. My scars are not visible when I am dressed. People cannot see the effects of the aromatase inhibitors. But as I lay on the table with the greatest leopard hospital gown on… the tears started streaming down my face. I was back 7 years ago as they wheeled me into the operating room to remove a part of my body. I have learned we must allow ourselves to honor these moments as part of the healing process too.

Today the tears streamed down my face again, so many emotions. Happiness that I am still here, gratefulness for all of the people that supported, prayed and helped me. Sadness for many of the people that I met because of the cancer that are not here anymore. I wrote and delivered a note to another close friend at that time, who had helped me with the kids. Our lives have now taken us in different directions. I sent a thank you text to Lou for supporting me during my treatment. We were close to divorcing in 2006 and then I was diagnosed. We decided to stay together. We tried for another 5 years, but it just was not meant to be.

After honoring those few moments of tears and emotions I was off to enjoy my day. I walked my favorite island and visited my friend who is still recovering from a freak illness. He congratulated me and then asked “did you think you would be sitting here 7 years later?” “Honestly, I was not sure, but my Doctors were.” was my response. They told me it would be 12-18 months of hell and then I would have a greater risk driving on the freeways.

I treated myself to one of my favorite childhood candies while relaxing for a pedicure.

My friend and her daughter came over and we celebrated our friendship… and the girls ate CAKE!

The only part missing in the day was seeing my Dante. This was his weekend with his Dad and his future Step-Mother. Other than that…

I am a survivor.

I am alive.

I have so many amazing people in my life that care about me.

It was a great day.

cross-posted at marybethvolpini

Healing so far so good (by Lyn)

I know I am not much of a blogger these days.  I even took my personal blog down while I work on a different one, but I am not finding the desire to work on it.  I kind of put myself out there to the world, cancer and personal warts and all, and am going through a phase of privacy.  I still want to share and support others, but I find that I have this deep need to be ‘normal’ for a short while.  I’ve been focusing on things like playdates and moms nights out, and going back to school for a different degree, etc.  I felt guilty for not keeping up with my cancer pals like I should, and then I remembered that no matter what, I will always belong to this community.  If we all lived in the same neighborhood, I guess my role would just change from a weekly meeting to dropping off food a couple times a month.

For an update, I’m 2.5 years out from my IBC diagnosis.  I had a double latissimus breast reconstruction in July and I had my last expansion last Monday.  The next step is healing and letting the radiated skin continue to change and heal, then we will do a fat injection.  Though I’m not a fan of surgery by now, I’m kind of looking forward to the removal of fat from my stomach and putting it in my boob.  Then it will be another 6 months after that I hear, when we will attempt the implant exchange.  I’m fine with taking the time to make sure it’s done as best as it can be.  I can see the visual changes in the tissue on my left side change weekly, and hopefully by the time the implants are in it will be supple enough to pass for a breast.  The good news is that I’m no longer calling it a ‘frankenboob’ which my plastic surgeon appreciates.  I’m taking pictures along the way and will publish a photo show at the end of it all.

My oncologist left the practice a while ago, and I finally met with a new one last week.  We’ll see how it goes, I know I don’t have to explain to you all how it is meeting a new doctor unfamiliar with you much less wondering if they are familiar with your disease.  Other than that, I’m good.  I find myself relieved the older my children get, my 6 year old son is in first grade and my daughter will be 5 on Valentines day.  Now that there is a small hope they will remember me if I die tomorrow, I relax a little.  Anyone play bunco?  I played that for the first time last month and it was fun!  See, that’s the type of thinking my brain goes to these days, I think I am serioused out.  the death of my mom from cancer followed by my own diagnosis a year later at age 30 followed by my marriage falling apart, I think I’m done.  I want to spout something wise, but I end up thinking ‘hey let’s make cookies and watch a good movie’ instead lol.  It’s a phase I know, but as someone who’s gone through a LOT of phases, I can’t say it’s any better or worse than a cancer focused one, it’s just different.  I wish you all lived closer so we could have a huge cancer warriors only bunco night complete with cookie exchange!  Then I could combine it all and feel somewhat normal again:)

Stream of Consciousness (by Judy)

I was just looking at my notes from the Metastatic Breast Cancer Network (MBCN) Conference that I attended last weekend in Baltimore, MD. I was hoping to find something that would lend itself to a coherent, theme-specific post, but instead I find little bits of information, some of them like golden nuggets that I can stash away until MBCN has the conference and power point slides online in about a month.

I wil share some of these nuggets, though, these little bits of information that, for whatever reason, struck me at the time as important enough to write down.

So here goes a disjointed, fragmented post . . . even though it’s all about metastatic breast cancer (MBC). That’s the thread that holds it all together.

One of the speakers talked a little bit about how the Network first was formed because two women, both with MBC, felt isolated and alone in support groups of people with early stage breast cancer. Things like going pink all of October or celebrating the end of treatment “is not possible with metastatic disease.” I know what she means, what the founders meant. I chave totally different conversations with those with early stage breast cancer (BC) than I have with those who have MBC. The ones with MBC seem to intuitively know what I’m going through, what I’m feeling and even thinking. They understand the very real fear of dying, of leaving this earth before I’m ready. They understand the worry I have for my child, my husband, my little family. They know that talking about death doesn’t mean that I’m obsessed with death or that I think I’m going to die soon. They understand that it’s a deep need to understand what will eventually happen to me with this metastatic disease. They understand all of these things because they live with these things themselves.

Approximately 30% of people diagnosed with early stage breast cancer will at some time develop metastatic breast cancer, cancer that has spread to organs other than the breast. Breast cancer, if confined to the breast, doesn’t kill. MBC, however, kills. And there’s very little research done on MBC.

One of the reasons that we also may become, in Whymommy’s words, cancer rebels and pink protesters, is that we can’t be happy and pink during October. We can’t join the throngs of “survivors” if we’re not going to survive this disease. We know we’re different, that we’re what they fear the most. How can we join in when we’re the black sheep of the breast cancer movement, the bad girls of breast cancer?

We can’t. We stand out. People get quiet when we tell them that we have MBC. They don’t, understandably, know what to say, although I think an “I’m sorry” or “I’m sorry to hear that” is always something you can say to people who are struggling not just with breast cancer but with so many other things that happen to people.

We are the 30%. I am part of the 10%, the percentage that was diagnosed with Stage 4 disease from the outset. I guess that makes me one of the REALLY bad girls of breast cancer. And it makes me unpopular with some people, with people who only want to see the happy stuff, with people who are uncomfortable with my diagnosis, with people who just can’t face the fact that I won’t be around someday, that barring a miracle or sudden death from something else, this cancer will take me in a horrible way.

Trust me, it’s not something I like to think about, but I have to. I have to try to prepare my loved ones that someday I won’t be here, I may be in hospice care, they may watch me die. Believe me, I don’t like that image any more than anyone else does, but the difference is that I can’t pretend that it doesn’t exist, I can’t say, “Oh, you’ll beat it,” because MBC is an equal opportunity killer — it takes fighters, optimists, supplement-takers, vegetarians, the religious, etc., just as much as it takes everyone else.

I will die from this. My husband, bless his heart, still says, “I hope not,” even when I try to talk to him about things that are important to me, that I think he’ll need to know about if it gets to the place where he’ll have to raise our son by himself.

*sigh* It’s a hard life. Even so, I love my life and I have an amazing God and I hope and pray for treatments to extend my life for a very long time.

That, and a good medical team, keep me alive for now . . . .
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Cross-posted to Just Enjoy Him.

Featured Charity: Living Beyond Breast Cancer (by Judy)

Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC):

empowers all women affected by breast cancer to live as long as possible with the best quality of life.

LBBC hosts seminars and conferences for women with breast cancer. In addition, it has an extensive website with subjects covered such as: Understanding Breast Cancer; Learning From Others; Events; Get Involved; and, About LBBC. There is also information about those who are newly diagnosed, those with metastatic breast cancer, African Americans with breast cancer, and Latinas with breast cancer.

Living Beyond Breast Cancer offers programs and services to women affected by breast cancer, caregivers and healthcare providers including a website, lbbc.org; a toll-free Survivors’ Helpline staffed by trained volunteers at (888) 753-LBBC (5222); national 84 cents of every dollar donated is used for programs and support servicesteleconferences; community programs; newsletters and publications; recordings and transcripts; small grants to help improve quality of life; and workshops and trainings for healthcare professionals

One thing I like about LBBC is that they tell you upfront that:

84 cents of every dollar donated is used for programs and services.

Please consider donating even a small amount to LBBC to help those of us trying to Live Beyond Breast Cancer.
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Cross-posted to Just Enjoy Him.

just slightly below par (by laurie)

On the morning of September 7, I had an appointment with my oncologist. I had confirmed that we would do it over the phone and kept my phone handy to await is his call.

 At 11:00, the nurse who works with Dr. G. called to say that I would be hearing him before the end of the afternoon, thus giving me several hours to work myself into a state of high anxiety. I’d had an echocardiogram and two CT scans on August 29 and I knew that my doc would have the results.

I had no reason (other than history) to believe that the CTs would reveal anything bad and I’d managed to pretty much forget about the results until the day I was to receive them. On that day, I became a nervous wreck. I jumped every time the phone rang and when the call I’d been waiting for finally came through at around 5pm, I was a mess.

My oncologist apologized for the delay, and, as always when I hear his voice, my annoyance and anxiety dissolved. He told me that both CTs were fine. I have lots of scarring on my liver (from the cancer) and a little scaring on my lungs (from the radiation) but that there was no sign of cancer anywhere.

Excellent news.

Then I asked about the echo, which surprised Dr. G. He didn’t have the results in front of him and had to go look them up. When he did, he sounded a bit taken aback.

My ejection fraction is at 48%. The normal range starts at 55%, so I’m really just below that but it’s enough of a concern to send me to a cardiologist and to cancel next week’s treatment.

My concern is not that there is permanent heart damage (although it’s a bit freaky to think that my poor heart is a bit over-stressed) because Herceptin damage is usually reversible. My fear is the length of time it will take my heart to bounce back and what my treatment options are in the interim. And what if the toxicity has built up to a sufficient level that long term treatment with Herceptin is no longer viable?

This drug has been my magic potion, the one I credit with my remission and the fact that I’m here today. I’m not ready to think about giving it up.

And I don’t have to. Not yet. Going to try and save all my questions for the cardiologist and, in the interim, carry on with my happy, busy life.

Update:  I have an appointment with a cardio-oncologist on October 3rd.

Cross posted from Not Just About Cancer.