About 30% of people diagnosed with breast cancer at any stage will develop distal metastasis. I am one.
Sherri Fillipo is a now-retired registered nurse. On her blog she writes “This is my story – living and dying with metastatic breast cancer. Once a nurse and now a patient, I love how seaglass captures what cancer has done for me – softened and rounded my hard edges. Like the...
Even people who are generally honest and trustworthy may lie on occasion. Maybe they want to avoid something unpleasant: Sorry, boss. There was a road accident and that’s why I’m late. (I overslept.) I wish I could go to the collectibles exhibition, but I have the most awful headache. (Nothing...
When I was a teenager my little brother was pretty sure I wouldn’t make it to 21. When I was 28 a plane I was on had to make an emergency landing, and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t see 29. For an infinitely long split second when I was...
I wrote this in June of 2013. A lot has changed since then, notably my feelings about progression. A lot has stayed the same, too. I recently reacted strongly to an episode of Call the Midwife that featured breast cancer. It made me remember this post. Have you noticed how...
I’ve been considering survival as a concept for a long time and my ideas have developed and changed. Two of my early posts, in October of 2011, were “Have I Survived Yet?” Part I and Part II. At that time and until recently I disliked—even resented—the label “breast cancer survivor”....
Today I read a wonderful post by Nancy Stordahl of Nancy’s Point about the phrase “lost his or her battle with cancer”. I agree very strongly with Nancy on this point and it made me think of some posts I’ve written on the same topic, but with a more personal...
I’d like you to meet Nick Sadler, director/producer of Times Like These, a documentary film about male breast cancer featuring my friends Bob DeVito and Bill Becker. Bob is a breast cancer survivor and Bill passed away from the disease last September. Nick tirelessly advocates for male breast cancer awareness....
On the phone with my dear friend Aliza: “I want to write a new post but I don’t have a topic.” “A good day.” “What?” “Write about a good day.” Hmm… It never occurred to me, but what a great idea! So here it is: what a good day looks like...
This is a scary topic. For some reason the thought of ocular (eye) metastasis horrifies us far beyond reason. I felt some of that when I read that a couple of the people in my metastatic breast cancer support group have eye mets, and that is why I did a...
I’ve had some scary experiences lately. * My cordless phone suddenly switched to speaker. I had no idea how it happened and could not for the life of me figure out how to switch it back until I had randomly pushed lots of buttons. * I somehow managed to delete...
