Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I've been thinking that I should get to bloggin'. (The purist in me wonders if I should be verbin' like that.) I'd been waiting for the nudge to get me started. Well, I got the nudge. Invasive ductal carcinoma. This is my story about my breast cancer.
4 comments:
Kevyn~
When you request that we ask you back to "the fully alive", I believe you may find that you have never been as fully alive as you will be in the coming months.
I am praying for you and your family, and will continue to do so.
Love to you and yours,
Kathy
Kevyn,
I enjoy your company each day. I will miss you during your time of healing. I will be praying for you and your family. What a blessing it has been, getting to know you, even though it has been one-sided. Wishing you the very best,
Jennifer, Radio Fan
Kevin, old friend.
While I can only claim a one-sided friendship as well, it is no less real. We both are from OHIO and are close in age as are our children. Thank you for sharing a very personal journey and may the faith you speak of heal others as well. I will be praying at 9:30 on June 2.
Cyndi, TV and Radio Fan
Dear Kevyn,
I am so sorry to learn about your diagnosis. My heart goes out to you. I'm from Iowa, which people on the coasts frequently confuse with Ohio, and six months ago, I received the same diagnosis. I had a double mastectomy the day after Thanksgiving and underwent immediate reconstruction as you are planning to do. "Turkey breast" will never again have quite the same meaning to me!
In addition to the good wishes I want to send along with those of others posted here, I'd like to offer some advice for you about your impending surgery and upcoming reconstruction, from one breast cancer survivor to another. These are the sorts of things that you might not come across in books. In fact, I believe there is a market for something like "The Girlfriend's Guide to Breast Cancer," if you know those often hilarious books about childbirth.
If you can, send someone to shop for you in the next day or two to get some very soft, nice front-closing t-shirts, camis, hoodies, etc. Snaps, zippers, buttons, whatever. Just make sure they are COMPLETELY front-closing as you will not want to lift your arms over your head for at least a week. Also send your helpful person to find you some dry shampoo (you know the kind you can sprinkle in your hair and brush out. Make sure you have someone to brush it out for the same reason as above) as you will not be allowed to shower for quite some time. If you feel up to it, schedule a shampoo and blow-out a couple of days after surgery. It will make you feel much better.
The crush of well-wishers is both a wonderful blessing and a burden. You will have many people who want to support you, and do not feel like you have to personally greet each one and tell them that yes, you are doing fine and are feeling very optimistic about things. You many in fact be both of those things, but if you aren't, don't feel like you have to pretend you are in order to make other people feel better. Your job is not to be the perfect patient with a "Lance-Armstrongish" attitude. Please have someone near and dear to you run interference. "She's resting right now" does the trick.
If you are doing reconstruction using a tissue expander, the first few days after you get "blown up" can be quite uncomfortable and the whole process is a bit surreal at times. I've heard that flap reconstruction can also be hard, especially in the immediate post-surgery period. In any case, try to find women who have undergone what you have because it is very hard to explain how you are feeling to someone who hasn't.
My life has been transformed in many unexpected ways since my diagnosis, and for that I am extremely grateful. I am happier now, in fact, than I have ever been. And so I echo Kathy's observations about being fully alive.
God is with you and so are countless others. Bless you,
Wendy
Post a Comment