Showing posts with label survivorship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label survivorship. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
One year ago...
Today is my cancerversary. One year ago I was diagnosed. What a milestone. With Thanksgiving tomorrow, it's a perfect time to sit back and be thankful for the year that I've had. The amazing, crazy, awful, beautiful, painful year.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
And now for your halftime entertainment...
.... ME!
Chemosabe Cristal: International TV star. (thanks W for the pic!)
(There I am! Just to the left of the lady in the pink wig).
As part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month (or, as I call it, October) the NFL is going pink to support Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. Late last week I received an e-mail from my local Komen affiliate saying that the first 100 survivors who replied would get a free ticket to the Monday Night Football game for the Dolphins vs Patriots and be on the field for the halftime show at SunLife Stadium. You bet I jumped all over that! And lucky for me, the median age of breast cancer patients is 61 so most of the survivors aren't as tech-savvy as a 29 year old with an awesome new smart phone.
They brought us down to the sidelines and had us line up while the players finished the first half of the game. Then a bunch of cheerleaders sporting pink performed while Kelly Rowland (of Destiny's Child fame) sang a few of her songs. When Kelly busted out with "Survivor", we walked down the field and the dancers unfolded a giant pink ribbon. Then the show was over and we were ushered off the field. It was such an exciting whirlwind of a night, and I can't believe I had the opportunity to be on the field!
Chemosabe Cristal: International TV star. (thanks W for the pic!)(There I am! Just to the left of the lady in the pink wig).
As part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month (or, as I call it, October) the NFL is going pink to support Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. Late last week I received an e-mail from my local Komen affiliate saying that the first 100 survivors who replied would get a free ticket to the Monday Night Football game for the Dolphins vs Patriots and be on the field for the halftime show at SunLife Stadium. You bet I jumped all over that! And lucky for me, the median age of breast cancer patients is 61 so most of the survivors aren't as tech-savvy as a 29 year old with an awesome new smart phone.
They brought us down to the sidelines and had us line up while the players finished the first half of the game. Then a bunch of cheerleaders sporting pink performed while Kelly Rowland (of Destiny's Child fame) sang a few of her songs. When Kelly busted out with "Survivor", we walked down the field and the dancers unfolded a giant pink ribbon. Then the show was over and we were ushered off the field. It was such an exciting whirlwind of a night, and I can't believe I had the opportunity to be on the field!
Monday, September 27, 2010
Being in the majority is cool!
Let me just state that what brought on the topic of this post was my most recent PET Scan.
You spend most of your life thinking you're nestled safely in the majority of all statistics. If I told you that 0.625% of people will spontaneously combust, you're probably not gonna go running for the fire extinguisher. You'd probably wager big that you'd fall into the 99.375% of the people that would be just fine (I'd take those odds!). As a young woman, I had a 0.625% chance of getting breast cancer ("young" is considered to be less than 40). Right before my diagnosis I had been told over and over that it wasn't possibly cancer and that I was too young. The shock of diagnosis hit me, my family, and my friends *that* much harder.
Now I've finished treatment and because of my triple negative breast cancer, there is no further therapy I can do to try to prevent a recurrence. I have had all the odds stacked up against me: my age, the triple negative status, my BRCA gene mutation, and my stage IIIA at diagnosis. So I hit the cancer with everything they've got. The most potent chemo, the most severe surgery, and even a "boost" on top of all the radiation treatments are all that shield me from a recurrence. Now I am pushed into the world of "survivorship" and everywhere I turn I'm faced with frightening statistics. With my super-aggressive type of breast cancer, I'm looking at a 30% chance of developing a recurrence and a 15% chance I won't see my 35th birthday? And these are "good" statistics? Now if I told you that you had a 30% chance of spontaneously combusting, I bet you'd be standing ready with the fire extinguisher, a garden hose, and the fire department's phone number on speed dial.
Now you can start to see some of the anxiety that I, as a survivor, have to live with. Every ache and pain in my body I immediately think is a metastasis (spreading of the breast cancer to other parts of the body). If I have a headache, it's brain mets. If I have a pain in my back, it's bone mets. If I have pain under my expanders (which I should! the tissue has been cut out and fried by radiation) then I think it's a recurrence. So yes, I am very happy to be done with treatment but as long as I'm living under this constant worry then I don't feel "cancer free". (I have been told, however, that with each clean scan the worry lessens.)
You spend most of your life thinking you're nestled safely in the majority of all statistics. If I told you that 0.625% of people will spontaneously combust, you're probably not gonna go running for the fire extinguisher. You'd probably wager big that you'd fall into the 99.375% of the people that would be just fine (I'd take those odds!). As a young woman, I had a 0.625% chance of getting breast cancer ("young" is considered to be less than 40). Right before my diagnosis I had been told over and over that it wasn't possibly cancer and that I was too young. The shock of diagnosis hit me, my family, and my friends *that* much harder.
Now I've finished treatment and because of my triple negative breast cancer, there is no further therapy I can do to try to prevent a recurrence. I have had all the odds stacked up against me: my age, the triple negative status, my BRCA gene mutation, and my stage IIIA at diagnosis. So I hit the cancer with everything they've got. The most potent chemo, the most severe surgery, and even a "boost" on top of all the radiation treatments are all that shield me from a recurrence. Now I am pushed into the world of "survivorship" and everywhere I turn I'm faced with frightening statistics. With my super-aggressive type of breast cancer, I'm looking at a 30% chance of developing a recurrence and a 15% chance I won't see my 35th birthday? And these are "good" statistics? Now if I told you that you had a 30% chance of spontaneously combusting, I bet you'd be standing ready with the fire extinguisher, a garden hose, and the fire department's phone number on speed dial.
Now you can start to see some of the anxiety that I, as a survivor, have to live with. Every ache and pain in my body I immediately think is a metastasis (spreading of the breast cancer to other parts of the body). If I have a headache, it's brain mets. If I have a pain in my back, it's bone mets. If I have pain under my expanders (which I should! the tissue has been cut out and fried by radiation) then I think it's a recurrence. So yes, I am very happy to be done with treatment but as long as I'm living under this constant worry then I don't feel "cancer free". (I have been told, however, that with each clean scan the worry lessens.)
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