Wow. It’s really hard to believe that my one year anniversary has come and gone so quickly! Has it actually been one full year since this whole experience began? Time flies when you’re … well, maybe it wasn’t that much fun.

But really, I am completely amazed at how time flies.

September 11th of this year marked the first anniversary of my mastectomy.

On that day in 2006, I went under the knife and had my left breast removed. On that day, I officially began my new life.

And on that day, my world, my thoughts, my feelings, and my priorities, completely and radically changed.

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Since my chemo has been officially over (forever) I have been desperately trying to get caught up on all the workload that fell behind while I was concentrating on getting better. So, I haven’t had a lot of time to write on this blog.

But I definitely need to take some time out to showcase some of the heroes that have helped me through this time in my life and talk about some people who have been inspired to turn my lemons into even more lemonade.

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Chemo is finally over. Woot!

No more boring, six-hour-long days spent in the chemo ward… no more burning arms from intravenous chemicals coursing through my veins… no more mouth sores, numb toes and red eyes caused by those few remaining eyelashes accidentally falling into my eye socket.

And, best of all, no more fuzziness caused by that all-too common side-effect: chemo brain.

I’ve had eight chemo sessions in all. It’s been a really tough five months, not so much with the chemo itself but with its after-effects, ranging from complete exhaustion to complete hairloss. My failed attempts to retain whatever strands of hair I have left on my body seem like a constant, losing battle.

Thankfully, we’re done. And the hair will start growing back in. (Michel, my wonderful husband, seems to have noticed a peach-fuzz-like growth on my scalp the other day. Ah, I knew I loved him for a reason!)

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Well, it’s hard to imagine, but I’m already halfway done with my chemotherapy treatments (yippee!). And there’s something I’ve learned along the way…

It gets tougher as the treatments progress.

I don’t know if it is like this for other chemo patients, but I have found that with each treatment, I get more and more tired and feel more dragged out. Napping is becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity each time I have a treatment.

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Since this drama began for us, I have been utterly amazed at the outpouring of support, gifts, cards, letters, and love that has come our way.

It is honestly overwhelming, at times. See, in our lives and in our business, we’re used to being the “givers”. We have a family that we are used to giving our time, money and support to. In our business, we are “teachers”, and we’re quite accustomed to giving a great deal of our knowledge, time, resources and energy to help others.

So when this happened, we honestly did not expect so many people, many whom we have never met, to reach out this way and provide us with much needed support and caring, just when we need it the most.

Michel and I will be eternally grateful for it. You were there for us when we needed the most to know that we were loved. And I believe it has gone a long way to helping me get through the healing much faster.

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We are on our way home tomorrow after travelling to Atlanta to speak at the Big Seminar. I think I’m still reeling from all the hugs, smiles, and well wishes I received this past weekend. It was such a wonderful experience, and I couldn’t be happier that we decided to go, in spite of all the dire warnings about how difficult it would be for me, physically, to travel away from home right now.

See, my first chemotherapy treatment occured last week, on October 17th. From what I understand, my immune system hits its lowest point in the 5-7 days that follow each treatment. That’s when my white blood cell population is at its lowest, right before they start to rebuild themselves again.

So this is the time when I am most susceptible to colds, flu, and other illnesses that I would be completely unable to fight in my weakened state. This can be extremely dangerous to people going through chemo, and if I catch a common cold, it can lead to my early demise.

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Yes, we actually did it! We shaved my head, and I’ve never felt more alive as I do at this moment!

This was truly an incredible moment in my life, and I am so grateful to all of you who helped me turn this difficult moment into something I actually enjoyed doing. It has taught me some very important lessons about turning lemons into lemonade, and how the most challenging moments in this journey are the moments I need to pay special attention to. Each time something arises that seems unconquerable, I will find something I can do, a twist I can use, that makes it a moment to look forward to.

The entire shaving experience took over an hour (although we edited it down to just the highlights for the video), and in that hour, a new person was born. This new character represents the best part of all of us when the chips are down.

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Well folks, since my last post, life has been a flurry of doctor’s appointments, tests, consultations, and getting informed and ready for the various treatments I will be going through in the coming months.

We knew I would need radiation, chemotherapy, and hormone treatments, but we needed all the myriad of tests to be completed to determine exactly what type of drugs they would be using in my specific case. And those test results are starting to trickle in, giving us more information about what to expect.

With bated breath, I’ve been waiting to find out whether the type of chemo drugs I will be receiving will result in early menopause, as well as losing all my hair. I fully expected this would be the case, but I didn’t want to go out and get my head shaved, only to find out that hair loss would not be an issue in my case. Wouldn’t that have been a cute joke for the universe to pull on me?

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After the diagnosis, Michel and I took the time we needed to absorb it all and deal with it on an emotional level. We were in waiting mode, waiting for the first appointment with the oncologist who would tell us what kind of chemotherapy treatment regimen would be required. We were waiting for the first appointment with the radiologist who would tell us how the radiation treatments would be administered. And we were waiting for test results to tell us what type of hormone therapy I would be given.

The waiting is one of the most difficult things we need to deal with. Waiting to get more information. Waiting to find out what happens next. Waiting to learn how long I’ll be going through this.

Waiting to “live” again.

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The day we’ve been waiting for has finally arrived. On Sept. 20th, we had an appointment with the surgeon to go over the “autopsy” results. They did the pathology and biopsy on the removed breast tissue and Wednesday, they delivered the results in a neatly typed 8 x 10 envelope.

Honestly, we were hoping for better results. Up until this point, we had no idea whether or not the cancer had invaded my lymph nodes, and we were praying that it hadn’t and that it had been caught in time. We weren’t really prepared for any other news.

So, the reality of how far this cancer had gone really hit us rather hard. We’re still reeling from it.

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