I’m not a nurse, but as someone who’s now navigating the world of breast cancer and chemo, I have to say that my respect for the nursing profession is pretty profound. And it really goes back to way before that—to a few years ago when my husband was hospitalized for a week with a weird infection. The compassion and…

No stars for you!

This video made me all kinds of happy

While perhaps it is arguable that *some* young teenaged girls are, in some respects, more “mature” than their male counterparts, to extrapolate from that that a typical 14 year old girl is, de facto, emotionally and mentally essentially a 17 year old is taking one GIANT motherfucking leap. There are all sorts of ways…

Luuurve her voice and this song is doing it for me.

UGH. Can we not edit posts anymore? I just re-read what I posted too quickly and feel like an ass. That last sentence about not looking like a sick person was insensitive, I realize, to anyone who is struggling with being sick.

Wow, I’m hopeful that maybe the rounds won’t get exponentially harder. I was feeling pretty well the day of and yesterday; today I’ve been fighting a lot of fatigue. Took a long nap in the afternoon but I’m still tired. I’m scheduled for 6 rounds of oHerceptin, Perjeta, Taxotere and Carboplatin. I don’t know much…

well said

Same.

But okay, people hear “DCIS” and assume, “Oh, it’s that easy, almost harmless cancer”, but that’s not necessarily the whole picture. I don’t claim to know all about Rancic’s case, but one can have DCIS that becomes invasive—when it is both present in the ducts AND then bursting through the walls and looking for more…

Thanks so much! Yeah, so far so good, but it’s just been one round, and I know the effects are cumulative, so it’ll probably get harder. I started off in good health, though. I can’t tell if your reply got cut off—you were starting to write about your situation. I hope whatever it is, you’re getting through treatment…

In my extensive—some might say obsessive—reading about the subject lately, I’ve picked up that a lot of folks are suggesting we may need to “re-classify” DCIS to better address this reality. It is true that many cases of DCIS never become invasive, never present a significant risk. I can imagine that going through…

Yep, mammos are anything but quick and painless. The sign on the wall where I got mine done said, “We compress because we care!” Which really means: “When we flatten your breast in an excruciating way—and then flatten it some more—remember to thank us!”

I feel you on this. Ultrasound seemed to be the much more instructive, go-to diagnostic for me as soon as they saw something amiss on the mammogram...that and then MRI, then biopsy. Maybe this is the way we should be moving. Mammography seems to have limitations, for sure.

OK, but nothing is mandatory and no one is forcing you to irradiate your breasts. The mammogram schedule is a set of recommendations. The concern I have is that the new recommendation of 50 or later may leave a lot of women vulnerable.

Full disclosure: I am completely biased by my own experience here. But here goes.

Well played. Well played.

Perfection

1) That is terrible and I’m so sorry this is happening to you, and even though I’m not a religiously praying person, I am a big believer in sending positive, hopeful thoughts, which I am doing in your virtual direction right now.

Okay, I totally get the disgust with the way the “pink” campaign is cynically leveraged by corporations to provide an appearance of compassion and activism that is largely false.