In a few days, I will turn 41.
I will be offline, hanging out at one of my favourite places in the world. I am not sure how peaceful it will be (we will be there with four adults, two kids, two puppies and a grown up dog) but I know it will be happy.
Last year my birthday was a very big deal. My friends and co-workers pooled their resources and sent me to BlogHer in Chicago. And there was a whole month of celebration leading up to the day itself. I was celebrating being alive, turning forty and my first clean scan after the metastasis.
This year I am happy to have things be much lower key. I am feeling pretty lucky these days.
In January, I acknowledged to myself that there were two things I really wanted this year, to attend BlogHer in San Francisco and a puppy. Thanks (again) to generosity from others (and the fact that I spoke at BlogHer this year), both of those things have been realized for me.
That’s a lot. And it’s enough.
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Laurie is the contributing editor for Breast Cancer. She writes at Not Just About Cancer and she is also a contributor at Mothers With Cancer. Her book, I'm Not Done Yet, is due out in Spring 2009.
Showing posts with label breast cancer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label breast cancer. Show all posts
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The Building
There is a group of seven women with whom I meet regularly. We are working on a writing project together. Each of us is smart, funny, strong, perceptive and unbelievably supportive of the others in the group.
We share a common set of values. We are all feminists, trade unionists and committed to working for social change. We have all had breast cancer. And we all worked in the same building.
Of the seven of us, four were under the age of forty-five when we were first diagnosed. Three of us were under forty. Several of us worked in the same corner of that building, which housed, at most, one hundred people.
Two of us (two of the youngest at the time of diagnosis) have had recurrences.
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Laurie is the contributing editor for Breast Cancer. She writes at Not Just About Cancer and she is also a contributor at Mothers With Cancer. Her book, I'm Not Done Yet, is due out in Spring 2009.
We share a common set of values. We are all feminists, trade unionists and committed to working for social change. We have all had breast cancer. And we all worked in the same building.
Of the seven of us, four were under the age of forty-five when we were first diagnosed. Three of us were under forty. Several of us worked in the same corner of that building, which housed, at most, one hundred people.
Two of us (two of the youngest at the time of diagnosis) have had recurrences.
Click here to continue reading...
Laurie is the contributing editor for Breast Cancer. She writes at Not Just About Cancer and she is also a contributor at Mothers With Cancer. Her book, I'm Not Done Yet, is due out in Spring 2009.
Laurie's Story
Laurie is the contributing editor for Breast Cancer. She writes at Not Just About Cancer and she is also a contributor at Mothers With Cancer. Her book, I'm Not Done Yet, is due out in Spring 2009.
Laurie is 41 years old, a mother to two boys (who are now five and ten years old), a spouse, friend, sister, daughter and writer. She is also living with metastatic breast cancer.
In December, 2005, as she was getting undressed one evening she found the lump that would lead to a diagnosis of breast cancer. After seven months on a grueling treatment regimen (mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation), Laurie joyfully returned to work, only to be diagnosed three weeks later with a metastasis (spread of the cancer) to her liver.
As her oncologist recently put it, “sixteen years ago, women with liver mets only had a matter of months to live,” yet here she is, miraculously in remission and continuing to defy the odds. Laurie has now had three clean (no sign at all of cancer in the liver or anywhere else) CT scans (her first was in June 2006 and the most recent was last May) and the same oncologist has declared himself to be “amazingly optimistic,” going so far as to call Laurie’s results “spectacular.”
Laurie knows that she is not, as the doctors say, “out of the woods for good” and she continues to go for monthly treatments of chemotherapy and herceptin. But aside from a few days a month, she lives an active, happy life with her family and their two sweet dogs and crotchety old cat.
Laurie is 41 years old, a mother to two boys (who are now five and ten years old), a spouse, friend, sister, daughter and writer. She is also living with metastatic breast cancer.
In December, 2005, as she was getting undressed one evening she found the lump that would lead to a diagnosis of breast cancer. After seven months on a grueling treatment regimen (mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation), Laurie joyfully returned to work, only to be diagnosed three weeks later with a metastasis (spread of the cancer) to her liver.
As her oncologist recently put it, “sixteen years ago, women with liver mets only had a matter of months to live,” yet here she is, miraculously in remission and continuing to defy the odds. Laurie has now had three clean (no sign at all of cancer in the liver or anywhere else) CT scans (her first was in June 2006 and the most recent was last May) and the same oncologist has declared himself to be “amazingly optimistic,” going so far as to call Laurie’s results “spectacular.”
Laurie knows that she is not, as the doctors say, “out of the woods for good” and she continues to go for monthly treatments of chemotherapy and herceptin. But aside from a few days a month, she lives an active, happy life with her family and their two sweet dogs and crotchety old cat.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Inflammatory Breast Cancer
We hear a lot about breast cancer these days. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetimes, and there are millions living with it in the U.S. today alone. But did you know that there is more than one type of breast cancer?
I didn’t. I thought that breast cancer was all the same. I figured that if I did my monthly breast self-exams, and found no lump, I’d be fine.
Oops. It turns out that you don’t have to have a lump to have breast cancer. Six weeks ago, I went to my OB/GYN because my breast felt funny. It was red, hot, inflamed, and the skin looked…funny. But there was no lump, so I wasn’t worried. I should have been. After a round of antibiotics didn’t clear up the inflammation, my doctor sent me to a breast specialist and did a skin punch biopsy. That test showed that I have inflammatory breast cancer, a very aggressive cancer that can be deadly.
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WhyMommy is the contributing editor for Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC). She writes at Toddler Planet and heads up Team WhyMommy which has spread the word about IBC. She also blogs at DC Metro Moms Blog, Women in Planetary Science Blog, and, her latest project, Mothers With Cancer.
I didn’t. I thought that breast cancer was all the same. I figured that if I did my monthly breast self-exams, and found no lump, I’d be fine.
Oops. It turns out that you don’t have to have a lump to have breast cancer. Six weeks ago, I went to my OB/GYN because my breast felt funny. It was red, hot, inflamed, and the skin looked…funny. But there was no lump, so I wasn’t worried. I should have been. After a round of antibiotics didn’t clear up the inflammation, my doctor sent me to a breast specialist and did a skin punch biopsy. That test showed that I have inflammatory breast cancer, a very aggressive cancer that can be deadly.
Click here to continue reading...
WhyMommy is the contributing editor for Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC). She writes at Toddler Planet and heads up Team WhyMommy which has spread the word about IBC. She also blogs at DC Metro Moms Blog, Women in Planetary Science Blog, and, her latest project, Mothers With Cancer.
WhyMommy's Story
WhyMommy is the contributing editor for Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC). She writes at Toddler Planet and heads up Team WhyMommy which has spread the word about IBC. She also blogs at DC Metro Moms Blog, Women in Planetary Science Blog, and, her latest project, Mothers With Cancer.
Susan, a.k.a. WhyMommy, is a 35-year-old stay-at-home mom of two baby boys: "Widget," age 3, and "Little Bear," age 1. Before her babies, she worked at NASA, selecting new research ideas and new missions to fly to other planets. Her current job is no less challenging.
Susan was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer on June 16, 2007, three weeks after her mother-in-law was diagnosed with infiltrating ductal carcinoma, another kind of breast cancer. Susan spent the next 10 months in chemotherapy, radiation, and recovering from a double mastectomy while trying to raise her children to be interesting, creative, and kind little boys. She has told her story day by day at Toddler Planet over the past year, with the love and support of Team WhyMommy; she is currently cancer-free and starting to work again. Susan is stubbornly not grateful for cancer, but she is grateful for the opportunity to meet so many strong women and the reminders to appreciate every day that we have together as friends and family.
Susan is desperately in love with her boys and tries to show them that every day, so that they will always remember how much their Mommy loves them.
Susan, a.k.a. WhyMommy, is a 35-year-old stay-at-home mom of two baby boys: "Widget," age 3, and "Little Bear," age 1. Before her babies, she worked at NASA, selecting new research ideas and new missions to fly to other planets. Her current job is no less challenging.
Susan was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer on June 16, 2007, three weeks after her mother-in-law was diagnosed with infiltrating ductal carcinoma, another kind of breast cancer. Susan spent the next 10 months in chemotherapy, radiation, and recovering from a double mastectomy while trying to raise her children to be interesting, creative, and kind little boys. She has told her story day by day at Toddler Planet over the past year, with the love and support of Team WhyMommy; she is currently cancer-free and starting to work again. Susan is stubbornly not grateful for cancer, but she is grateful for the opportunity to meet so many strong women and the reminders to appreciate every day that we have together as friends and family.
Susan is desperately in love with her boys and tries to show them that every day, so that they will always remember how much their Mommy loves them.
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