One of the most bittersweet and truly extraordinary aspects of life is our ability to experience a wide range of emotions in a very short amount of time. One minute you can be drowning in fear… the next, smiling cheek to cheek after receiving good news. Life is unexpected and we have very little control…
……That is the question that was finally answered by my doctors last week. And the answer is, unfortunately, YES: we are going ahead with radiation. Two Fridays ago I spoke with Dr. Majlis about the next (and hopefully final) step in the plan for my treatment. When I entered the room he casually laid back…
Well, I´m sure a lot of you read last week about Ms. Jolie´s decision to have a preventative double mastectomy because she tested positive for the genetic mutation, BRCA1. The test indicated that she had an 87% risk of having breast cancer in the future. After reading the article about her decision on my beloved…
“You are in complete pathological remission…”: These are the words that every cancer patient longs to hear. Of course, for me, a person diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer only seven months ago, these were incredible, amazing, and dumbfounding words that I never expected to hear. I´m pretty sure my doctors never expected to say…
Well, it´s been over two weeks since my surgery and a lot has happened since then. Right now I am back at Clinica Alemana receiving my usual anti-body treatments. Luckily, this time I didn´t have to go through the hassle of actually checking into the hospital for treatment and was allowed to go to the…
Since my surgery is scheduled for next Tuesday, it´s been a busy week full of medical to-do´s. Although I feel like I am at peace with what´s about to happen, I know that I will get more and more nervous as my time “under the knife” draws near. Luckily one of my oldest friends, Jen,…
As the above “Keep a Breast”organization´s (http://www.keep-a-breast.org/i-love-boobies/) catchy slogan indicates, the subject of this week´s blog post is yes, you guessed it: breasts. So if you are at all giggly or embarrassed to read about things like silicon gel and nipples, then perhaps you should read no further. But don´t worry, I too felt very…
The title of this blog entry (translated as… I don´t want to have cancer) is pretty self-explanatory. I have chosen the title as it is also the title of the book my therapist wrote in which she explains how to best fight against cancer. A bit of an obvious title if you ask me, but…
A few weeks ago I received an email from Cameron Von St. James who found my blog and wanted to contribute an article that my readers might find interesting. He has been caring for his wife for many years now and wanted to share his story of hope. I am grateful for his perspective and…
I realize it`s been much too long since my last blog post, and that this entry´s title may cause Will Smith to come knocking at my door citing copyright infringement, but unfortunately I haven´t been feeling so peppy this last month, which has made it impossible to write. To put it mildly, things have been…
The Luckiest Unlucky Girl 