In June I began my 7 weeks of radiation.  Half way through my chest and armpit became extremely red and irritated, but it didn’t stop me from finishing on time.  Afterwards I followed up with a medical oncologist who told me I would need to wait at least a month before I would be able to do chemotherapy.  I needed my radiation burn…[more]

Luckily my incision healed just fine, and was able to get another expander placed in December.  I was in and out of the hospital the same day and only experience some minor pain.  I think at this point surgeries no longer faze me.  I was fortunate enough not to experience any complications this time around.  After a few week…[more]

We packed up and moved to New Orleans near the end of September of 2006.  As we resided in an apartment with nothing but an airbed and a TV, I did not seek out a new plastic surgeon.  We wanted to wait till we bought a house, had gotten our things out of storage, and were settled in.  Just after New Years I began looking for new doct…[more]

While I waited as patiently as I could to have reconstruction surgery again, I went on with my life and tried to make it as normal as possible.  I was still extremely fatigued, and getting my daughter off to school each day was a real chore.  Sometimes I would be late picking her up and the school would complain – which jus…[more]

Before I knew it, it was October and time for my surgery with my plastic surgeon.   We drove back to Vegas for the surgery that kept me in the hospital over night.  The surgery itself wasn’t nearly as bad as the mastectomy, but it was hardly pleasant either.  Despite being uncomfortable, I was looking forward to wearing a …[more]

Not having my friends stand by me lead to major depression issues, and once that started I think the whole cancer thing hit me.  I become so depressed that I even began having suicidal thoughts.  My friends couldn't make time for me; I was worried about the cancer returning, I was in lots of physical pain from lymphedema, and being so f…[more]

I get up this morning to check out what's going on in the world and came across this article about Nintendo:The Nintendo DS Lite will now be available in a Limited Edition Pink Ribbon -- not just for girls mind you, breast cancer affects us all. While the polar white console doesn't include any games or nifty carrying case, five…[more]

Here I am holed up in a hotel in Shreveport, as my family had to evacuate our home near New Orleans due to Hurrican Gustav.  Every since it hit Southern Louisiana yesterday morning we've been attached to televised news reports and the internet trying to find out how our house weather the storm.  So far …[more]

For those of you that don't know, IDC is infiltrating ductal carcinoma, also known as invasive ductal carcinoma.  It's a type of breast cancer - the type I was diagnosed with 3 years ago.  What I have now is called a recurrence.Here’s the low-down on IDC, it's atypical cells.....cells that, for an unknown reason, mutated as they g…[more]

Yes, another mostly cloudy day of thunderstorms, which is also what we have in store for Saturday & Sunday. After all, it is hurricane season and thunderstorms are a big part of the season. But seriously, who needs fireworks when you have thunder that rocks your house? Besides, last year when Mr. Ruben (as the kids call him) put on a fireworks …[more]