Breast Cancer Diaries

This show was on last night. It was a video diary of a 36 year old young mother/journalist who had a 1 and 4 year old dealing with her breast cancer from diagnosis to bilateral mastectomy, through chemo and radiation. I missed the very first part so I don't know if she was BRAC1and/or TNBC but it was in her nodes. She went through hell as some of my breast-blog friends (did you guys see this?) are currently experiencing and to whom I wish all the best but seeing the effects, which were very brutal, was very upsetting and reminded me what I might be into. I know some of you have given me stories on how people went through chemo and 'things were not that bad' but that did not jive with what I saw. They didn't give names of the drugs she was on, which would have been helpful, though I could see the tell-tale Adriamycin dripping into her. Her 4 year old was an unbelievably articulate precious boy always trying to comfort his mother. During her first chemo session, the mom is on her cell phone trying to figure out why her son was rejected at some private kindergarten. They actually told her that her son was not up to their standards. I hope the administrator of that school gets plenty of feedback as I am sure her town was all watching this. But it is now 4 years later and she is alive and well as is the rest of her family and has an extreme appreciation for the preciousness of life.

But I am recovering from the 2nd surgery faster than the first. I am off of any extra drugs. I was able to take a 15 minute walk without feeling too dizzy and was able to check in with a neighbor who I thought was moving today but will be here at least another month. Brenda came by with some pizzelles, blood orange soda and, best of all, company and later a neighbor came over with dinner-a really good cherry, blue cheese salad, rice and a broccoli-cheese casserole along with bread. It was enough to feed a family of 10.

So on tap for my busy day-a shower which means I will see my new damage; voting as I don't think I will be up for standing in line forever Tuesday and I will be by myself then as Steve will be gone 16 h as an election inspector; taking a longer walk-it is warmer and sunny today; dish washing as noone seems to do it around here; dealing with trick -or -treaters as Naomi will be in Dexter at the store and Steve usually hangs out there unless I can get Josh to take her to his house-she is refusing to walk there as it is 1.5 miles away from the store. Karen will come over later.