Category: breast cancer

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I’m Blogging For My Breast (and Both of Yours!)

Did you know that:

  • this is the 36th post I’ve written about breast cancer?
  • I am a 14-year survivor of breast cancer?
  • I was 27 when I was first diagnosed?
  • my mom lived for 26 years after her first breast cancer diagnosis?
  • the year before she died, Mom joined the Army of Women, and encouraged me to join, too?

October has always been a rough month for me. All that pink…all those reminders of how breast cancer has been a part of my life. So instead of moping around this October, I’m going to be proactive. I’m starting the month of October by spreading the word about the Army of Women. Did you know that just by joining, you could help PREVENT breast cancer?

The Love/Avon Army of Women (AOW) is a unique program of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit breast cancer research organization. The program is funded through a grant from the Avon Foundation for Women.  The AOW is a groundbreaking initiative that connects breast cancer researchers via the internet with women who are willing to participate in a wide variety of research studies.

Here’s some more information about AOW. Did you know that:

  • the goal of the Army of Women is to recruit ONE MILLION MEN AND WOMEN of all ages and ethnicities, including breast cancer survivors and those who have never had breast cancer?
  • participants will be involved in important research to discover THE CAUSE of breast cancer – how to stop it before it starts?
  • participation in any of the studies is ALWAYS, COMPLETELY voluntary?

Start your October right, and join the Army of Women!

Here are some other things you can do:

  • Update your FaceBook status with the following: “I signed up to STOP breast cancer before it STARTS. Have you? Join today at www.armyofwomen.org, then copy and paste this status update as your own.”
  • Tweet about the AOW and use the hashtag #WritePink.
  • Watch this short video about the Army of Women.

Will you join us?

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A Slice of Life

6:45 a.m. I wearily open my eyes as Lily pads to the side of my bed. I’m so tired…Lily and Emmy both climbed into bed with me at different times last night, and I took them potty and put them back to bed. Staying up late the night before to write a blog post didn’t help my weariness, and I turned over, not wanting to get up. Lily insisted.

She would have been 68 years old today.

7:30 a.m. Hair wet from my shower, I prepare breakfast for the girls. Shuffling bagel toasting, coffee drinking and lunch making, I manage not to think too much about today’s date.

Oh, how she would have loved to talk about Kindergarten with her oldest granddaughter, and about preschool with her youngest granddaughter! They were the light of her life.

9:30 a.m. Girls both at the correct schools and in the correct classrooms, I’m working this morning. My new job as a part-time preschool teacher keeps me occupied. I’m helping a little one put on a princess dress; roaring my stegosaurus at the T-Rex that is trying to devour it; helping to build a house out of blocks. I pour juice and sweep up homemade play dough. The morning passes by.

Emmy was only two when she died; Lily had just turned 5. If only she could see how they’ve grown!

12:30 p.m. I make fish sticks for Emmy, and think about Lily at full-day Kindergarten. I hope I packed enough food for Lily’s lunch today. She should have found my little love note in her lunch bag by now.

Last night, I brought out the letters she wrote to me when I was in college. Her handwriting, so familiar, brought her to life again for a little while.

1:30 p.m. Ed returns my call while my hands are covered with flour from the pork chops I’m going to stick in the crock pot. I’ll disinfect the phone later, I think, as I excitedly tell him that I received my first paycheck today, meager though it is. Emmy is demanding attention; she is exhausted from her morning at preschool, she misses Lily, and she just doesn’t know what to do with herself. I try to have her take a nap, but she wants nothing to do with sleeping.

She was such a good listener, such a good mother! What did she still have left to teach me?

7:00 p.m. The afternoon flew by, as laundry, dishes, and cooking dinner take up my minutes and my hours. As I rock Emmy, about to put her in her bed, I want to call her, to wish her a happy birthday. But there will be no answer.

My mom died from breast cancer on November 23, 2009. I miss her every day, and today, on her birthday, my heart just aches.