Flight of the phoenix

29 Mar

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here. Which is good in some ways because it means I’ve been busy and not just moping around having cancer. Not that I’ve done a whole lot of moping, but there’s been some quality “under the coffee table time,” which I think is allowed (even in my family).

Primarily I’ve been working, writing stories about everything from the Hunger Games Workout to getting naked at the gym to Ashley Judd’s weirdly puffy face. I’ve also been running and socializing and swing dancing and doing a bit of dating here and there. In other words, wending my way back to my pre-cancerous life.

Or at least giving it my best shot.

But there are always reminders — and I’m not just talking about the new “pixie cut” or my flat-ironed chest. I’m flying to Arizona today which used to mean stressing out about packing and getting to the airport on time and worrying whether I’d be seated next to someone I’d accidentally made out with in college. Now that I have my breast cancer merit badge, though, I have new things to worry about.

TSA, for instance. Are they going to make me slap out my “gummi boobs” in front of dozens of passengers the way they did a breast cancer survivor from Charlotte, N.C., back in November 2010? Are they going to confiscate my prostheses as potential weapons of mass (transit) destruction? (Cue the fembot video).

Curious as to how other breast cancer survivors have fared while flying, I went online and immediately found a discussion board filled with posts from women with the exact same concerns. Some had indeed been subjected to invasive pat-downs and/or queries about what exactly they were packing in their bra (a question I haven’t had since seventh grade). Others talked about leaving “the girls” in their suitcase so they wouldn’t be grilled about the strange blobs on their chest after going through the body scanner. A couple (jokingly) talked about tossing their fake boobs into the gray plastic bins along with their shoes and purse and everything else.

I’m definitely not going to hide my girls away in a suitcase like some kind of illegal contraband. Likewise, I don’t want to have to announce to a complete stranger that my pretty Spanx bra is full of spongy silicone and not much else (although the thought of throwing my gummi boobs onto the conveyor belt with my bags and shoes and coat does have a perverse comedic appeal). On yet another note, I’m not too keen on going through the full body scanner, at least not after receiving 33 daily blasts of radiation this last fall.

Then there’s the whole lymphedema issue. Since I had lymph nodes removed from both sides (9 on the right, 3 on the left), I’m at risk for this crap. And flying, of course, is one of the big ways it can be triggered. Unfortunately, I remembered this about two days before my departure date, which didn’t give me enough time to find what’s known as a “compression garment,” i.e. a super tight sleeve (preferably in black).

So now in addition to worrying about the plane crashing (or the pilot or flight attendant having a meltdown), I have to worry about getting publicly outed by an over-zealous TSA agent and possibly having my arms swell up to twice their size.

On a positive note, though, Seattle is a sad, soggy mess while I’m headed for 85 degree weather. Also, more importantly, I’m still alive to bitch about all this stuff. ; )

Wish me luck, folks, and as always, thanks for the read.  Also, if anyone has any stories to share about flying with fake boobs (or fake anything else), I’d love to hear them!

Happy cancerversary to me

11 Feb

Me, pre-diagnosis (Nov 2010)

So today is my one year “cancerversary”. One year ago today, I got a phone call from the radiologist (aka Dr. Debbie Downer), the woman who initially found the three masses in my chest via ultrasound and then performed the biopsy on those (and a fourth one she discovered at the time) a few days later.

Needless to say, the phone call did not go well. For starters, she used the word “positive” which for anyone NOT waiting to hear back about a cancer diagnosis is a perfectly fine word. If you happen to be waiting to hear whether you’re going to maybe die or lose some of your body parts, though, “positive” isn’t all that, well, positive. And as it turned out, I was a very positive patient, with all four of the masses in my two breasts coming up roses for invasive lobular carcinoma, otherwise known as ILC, or “evil cancer” as my breast cancer surgeon likes to call it.

I still have the notes from that horrible conversation, slip-cased in a plastic sleeve and stuffed into a giant three-ring binder. In fact, I have everything from this past year stuffed into that binder  — scribbled notes from phone calls with nurses, social workers and breast cancer survivors; MRI reports where they talk about my “unremarkable uterus” and my “grossly normal bowel”; pages and pages of printouts of upcoming doctors’ appointments; get well cards from friends and colleagues and my wonderful nieces and nephews (I still love 9-year-old Charlie’s post-surgery card the best: “Doctors are dumb,” he wrote. “You are so not sick. Also you have a lot of sex in you!”).

Me, post-surgery, pre chemo, May 2011. WTF, indeed.

Somewhere amidst all of the pathology reports and medical handouts and hospital bracelets (yep, I saved those, too), I even have a lint roller sheet covered with the last vestiges of my dearly departed blonde hair. After shaving my head, my scalp itched like crazy so my wig guy said to just take the rest off with masking tape. Somewhere in a closet, I even have one of my drains and the port they took out of my body three months ago (both completely scrubbed up and sterilized, of course).

I’m not sure why I’ve saved all of this stuff, but it just seemed important at the time. I guess I wanted some kind of record of my awful year — my annus horribilis — and at present, this notebook, these odd bits of breast cancer detritus, are it. Now that I’m three months out of treatment, I have very few things to save in my notebook. Instead, I’m finding myself taking things out and reading through them, trying to decipher what the hell, exactly, happened to me over the course of these last 12 months.

While I was living it — those first tearful appointments with the surgeon, the indignity of the drains following the double mastectomy, my three months of chemo and then those long six plus weeks of radiation — I remember telling myself that I would never forget a single moment of the torture I was going through. That the anger, the shame, the pain, the fear, the weakness, the “otherness” (with my bald head and flattened chest I felt like a space alien half the time) would be seared into my brain as deeply as the radiation burns seared my chest.

Greetings from Planet Chemo (and obviously, radiation). October 2011

But the memories have already begun to fade — either due to medication or stress or chemo brain or the body’s miraculous ability to do what it needs to do to heal itself. Truth be told, there are probably some things I shouldn’t remember. Although if I want to, all I have to do is open my notebook (or close my eyes and begin to type) and a lot of it comes flooding back.  

Not that I’m anywhere near done with my great breast cancer adventure. Reconstruction — in some form — still looms ahead. One day, maybe even some day this summer, my flattened gnarled chest will no longer look like one of the talking trees from The Wizard of Oz or that old WWII cartoon, Kilroy Was Here, whenever I lean forward. Instead, I’ll have boobs and cleavage and fat covering my very visible ribcage. If there’s a god, I may even get some feeling back in my skin and nipples. Or finally be able to get rid of the weird constricting pain in my chest and armpits that comes from scar tissue and adhesions, pain that I and other breast cancer survivors use nicknames to describe:  Gulliver chest, rubber band pits, twang arm.

Not that things are all that bad. As I sit here typing and ruminating on the dark days that are behind me, I can definitely see progress. I seldom cry when I talk about the cancer or my lost girls anymore. I’m no longer a chemo invalid, hobbling around my apartment, hanging on to chairs for support and using a wrench to open water bottles. I no longer have to slather Aquaphor healing ointment onto a lobster red chest or pop Vicadin for the deep burning pain that comes with radiation. These days, I’m back out running and swing dancing and tap dancing and doing everything I did before (including making poor food choices — still need to work on that). These days, I’m no longer a bald space alien — I’ve got at least an inch worth of hair on my head and a pixie “haircut” that looks almost intentional. Granted, my hair’s a completely different color and a completely different texture than it was before (it’s much more gray, for instance), but it’s a start. Most importantly, it’s not going to start coming out in handfuls the way it did 10 days after that first dose of taxotere and cytoxan.

Me, in recovery. December 2011. Where's the frigging champagne?

The bottom line is I’m still here. And the cancer’s not. At least it wasn’t the last time I had my tumor markers checked. The doctors won’t tell me I’m cured or cancer-free (at least not for a few more years), but I can say that I’ve made it a year past diagnosis, which is more than I expected when the phone call from that oh-so-grim radiologist came in, 12 months ago today. And while breast cancer’s hardly something to celebrate, getting through the diagnosis, the surgery, the chemo, the radiation and yes, even the “recovery” process, most definitely is.

So even though it’s only 10 a.m., I’m tempted to pop the cork on one of the champagne bottles in my fridge. Or perhaps make myself a martini or Manhattan or mimosa (anything but a chemo cocktail).

I’ve made it a year, folks. I’ve made it a year.

What we talk about when we TalkAboutHealth.com

1 Feb

As many of you know, there’s nothing I like better than to blather on incessantly about my life, my dates, my “battle” with breast cancer (a word that always makes me feel like I’m jousting with this despicable disease), and anything and everything else under the sun.

Well, as luck would have it, I was actually asked to officially blather on about some of these topics by the fine folks at TalkAboutHealth.com, a website “where patients and caregivers get personalized, helpful, and accurate answers from experts, survivors, and partner organizations.”

The format is pretty simple. Members post questions and I (and countless others) answer them. So far, I was asked about the “tuck” on my left breast (the small, subtle clue that led me to discover my cancer), about my nipple and skin sparing surgery and about how — as a single woman — I managed to get the support I needed while going through cancer treatment.

I’ve still got a few more questions to answer (they’re about dating, so I’m saving the best for last), but if anybody wants to check out my thoughts on the above, here are the links. As always, thanks for the read and would love to hear your input!

Would you further elaborate about discovering the “tuck” under your breast and describe it? How did you know to tell your doctor about it?
I first noticed the tuck after losing about 45-50 pounds through diet and exercise. It was maybe about 3/4″ long and looked a bit like tiny elves had stitched a “seam” along the inside of my breast just under my left nipple. The tuck didn’t hurt and didn’t really bother me all that much until I noticed that whenever I raised my left arm, my breast would “crumple” in a bit. That seemed more disturbing to me.  Click here to read the rest.

Would you share your nipple and skin sparing surgery experience?
I was completely undone by my breast cancer diagnosis and even moreso by the news that my only surgical option was a double mastectomy (the location of the tumors, the number of tumors and the small size of my breasts disqualified me for lumpectomy early on). My breast surgeon thought I might be a good candidate for nipple and skin sparing, though, and I embraced that option immediately. Click here to read the rest

As a single woman, where did you get the support you needed while going through cancer treatment?
I’ve been single for most of my adult life and have even developed a bit of a writing platform regarding the single life with a book (How to Date in a Post-Dating World), an anthology of essays (Single State of the Union) and a humor column (Single Shot), published by the now-defunct Seattle P-I.

For me, singledom is a natural state. Instead of being cloistered away as one half of a couple, I have a huge circle of friends — people I’ve worked with, people I’ve gone to school with, fellow writers, gal pals, neighborhood buddies, drinking buddies, old boyfriends, sources that turned into friends, the list goes on and on. I also have four sisters, all of whom I’m close with. I had so many people I needed to tell about the breast cancer, in fact, I eventually started an email newsletter (the Cancertown Gazette). And then a blog (www.doublewhammied.com). Click here to read the rest.

The Carrie Bradshaw of breast cancer

15 Jan

When it comes to breast cancer, are men bigger boobs than the ones we lost?

I got a great question from one of my readers named Vanessa the other day about a subject that’s near and dear to my (dark, dysfunctional) heart: dating and breast cancer

“When you start dating someone,” she asked, “how do you tell the person? When do you tell them? Any advice is greatly appreciated.”

As it turns out, I was just interviewed by Judy McGuire (aka the Date Girl columnist for the Seattle Weekly) about this very topic (click here for a link). I’ve also written a reported piece about dating with breast cancer for Match.com’s online magazine Happen (here’s a link) and talked about what it was like for me trying date while going through treatment in my TODAY.com essay, Love in the Time of Chemotherapy.

I guess all of these dating stories, plus the fact that I used to write the Single Shot column for the now-defunct Seattle P-I, and have also written a funny dating manual (How to Date in  Post-Dating World), is why one of my BC buddies on Twitter started referring to me as the “Carrie Bradshaw of breast cancer.”

Jeez, now that I think of it, I even have my own Mr. Big.

But back to Vanessa’s question about the hows and the whens of telling a date about your breast cancer.

Post surgery, post chemo, post radiation me, getting ready to go out. I’ve got on my war paint and my prostheses. Fake it til you make it, baby. ; )

I’ve done quite a bit of dating this past year, despite the surgery, the chemo, the radiation and the challenges of post-treatment Limboland. Some of the guys already knew about the breast cancer, which made the “big reveal” a moot point. Others — like the men I’ve met on online dating sites — didn’t have a clue, namely because I work hard at what I call “passing,” i.e., looking as “normal” as possible.

What does that mean? It means no pajamas, no pallor, no cancer beanie — instead they (and everyone else) get skinny jeans and black boots and maybe a vintage leopard coat. I sometimes feel like a drag queen getting ready to go out and about in the world, especially when I’m getting ready for a date. First, there’s the wig (made of my own hair), then there’s my gummi boobs (tucked into a pocketed Spanx black bra), then there’s the makeup, in particular my painted-on eyebrows. (Thanks to Laura Mercier eyebrow powder and a Bartell’s eyebrow brush, no one knows my eyebrows were lost to chemo.) During rads, I even wore my V-neck shirts backwards — Audrey Hepburn style — so no one would see the radiation burns.

In a nutshell, I do whatever I can to look like a happy, healthy, stylish 42-year-old. FYI, I’m also trying to “pass” with regard to age — I’m actually 53. ; )

Anyway, I can usually get away without telling a guy about the breast cancer for 2 or 3 dates (by then, I’ll know if I want to see them again and whether I need to bother telling them).

Unless, of course, they try to kiss me. That’s when things get dicey, mainly because a lot of guys will try to grab the back of your head when they move in which means they’ll feel the wig cap and know something’s up. I even had one guy try to run his fingers through my hair at the end of the date to tell me how pretty it was.

“Next time I see you, I’ll tell you a secret about my hair,” I told him as I jumped out of the car, sensing a bit of confusion on his part. (Did the wig shift? Did he feel the cap? I don’t know, but I did tell him about the breast cancer on our next date and we’re still in touch).

As for specifics about the “how to tell him” question? A lot of times, I’ll start by asking the guy if he’s Googled me, since I’ve written about my breast cancer in some pretty high profile places (sometimes I wonder if I’m trying to tell every single guy in the country at once so I won’t have to go through the reveal date by date). Most often, they haven’t, so then I’ll usually try to find an appropriate moment (i.e., once they’ve started drinking) and then basically just blurt it out.

Home from a date in my vintage leopard coat. The coat’s faux fur, but the wig’s made from my own hair!

I don’t think there’s any right or wrong way to do it, but if you can tie it in somehow with something they’ve told you (like a friend who’s been through a health scare or a recent health situation of their own), that can make it easier.

I usually don’t go into too many details, i.e., no gruesome stories about chemo or surgery or anything like that. I’ll just stick to the basics, i.e., “Sorry to hear about your knee surgery; I just went through this whole breast cancer thing last year myself.”  After that, I’ll usually tell them I’m wearing a wig because of the chemo. And will sometimes tell them I’ve lost my girls but will be getting them back after reconstruction. Sometimes, I don’t even go there, though, since some men get too caught up in the whole boob thing (I had one guy not only ask when exactly I was getting the reconstruction but how big my new boobs were going to be).

The best news, I’ve found, is that talking about your breast cancer with a potential romantic partner is not the end of the world. I’ve had a couple of stinkers who’s slunk off into the shadows (they weren’t boyfriend material anyway and I was delighted to be rid of them). And I’ve had some guys ask dumb questions, like that old fave: “Soooooo, what are your odds?” The majority of the guys, though (and we’re talking maybe a dozen or so), have responded very positively overall. I mean, they’re sorry that I had to go through this crap, but they’re not daunted by the fact that I don’t have boobs or long hair or that there may be another cancer scare — or a shortened expiration date — in my future.

A couple of men with whom I’ve gotten closer to have even seen me without the wig and are not only completely cool with the fact I don’t really have long hair, they think I look cute as hell with short, short hair. So there you go.

Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve had nearly a year to process this crap so I’m much more comfortable with it. Maybe it’s my matter-of-fact (dare I say confident?) attitude. Or who knows, maybe it’s that vintage leopard coat. Whatever the case, though, I’ve found that dating with cancer is totally doable.

Now if only we could find some guys with that same quality, eh Vanessa?  ; )

Chuckles, the cancer clown

7 Jan

It’s a gray, muzzy Saturday here in Seattle and I have to say the external weather and my internal mood are perfectly matched.

I’m not sure what happened. Last night, I went out with a slew of journalistic types — smart, snarky sorts with more quips up their sleeves than tattoos (which is saying something for Seattle) — and I had a perfectly lovely time meeting new people and yammering with old buds. One of those buds was a colleague I hadn’t seen in more than a year, which meant we had a lot of catching up to do.

In other words, there was a lot of cancer talk.

As usual when I’m out with a group of people who know about my situation, I became Chuckles, the Cancer Clown, cracking wise about the double mastectomy, the chemo, the hair loss, the radiation, the daily doses of tamoxifen — the whole nine yards. Listening to me talk about my breast cancer experience, you’d think it was all a big hoot. You’d think I wasn’t a bit fazed by the loss of my beautiful breasts and the fact that my chest now looks like a 10-year-old boy’s that’s been badly ironed.

Sure, my nipples are crooked and there are wrinkles and folds where there used to be lovely feminine mounds. But so what? I’ve got fabulous new fake boobs, given to me by a friend of a friend who got them at Nordstrom for $300 each. “I call them my gummi boobs!” I tell my editor buddy. “Aren’t they great? I can just hand them to some guy if he wants to feel me up and I’m not into it. And when I get tired of ’em, I can just tuck ’em away in a drawer!”

Watching me laugh and joke about my wig — made from my own hair which I had to shave to save (one of the hardest decisions of my life) — you’d never imagine me pounding my bathroom mirror, sobbing “Come back! Come back! Oh god, please come back!” at my patchy bald pate during those horrible long months following chemo.

I hide the pain, the anguish, the grief, the whole horrible mindfuck that is cancer treatment quite well. At least when I’m out with friends.

Once I’m home, though, things are different. Chuckles slips away and I’m left with Cancer Chick, the girl who winces as she pulls off the wig (the double stick tape is attached to new growth now and takes out a chunk of hair with each wear). After the wig is gone, Cancer Chick then changes into a nightgown and diligently rubs castor oil all over her chest — or what’s left of it — hoping it will soak into the skin and the muscle beneath and make it possible for the skin to stretch enough to hold tissue expanders and eventually implants. Hopefully, not implants that will encapsulate or explode once they’re inside.

Of course, this may all be for naught. Thanks to radiation — you should hear my stand-up routine on that particular topic — the skin on the left side might not stretch. It might not heal. So I may be forced to have some kind of complicated surgery that harvests a chunk of muscle and tissue from some other part of my body in order to build a boob there.

“I may end up with a butt for a boob,” I told my friend last night and we both howled at the wackiness of that.

I’m sure part of it was the beer. Part of it was the discomfort of having to talk about cancer in a group setting. Part of it was my almost fanatical insistence on making others feel comfortable about the fact that I’ve somehow ended up with this lousy, terrifying disease. And part of it — and this particularly grim blog post, no doubt — is the tamoxifen that has me swinging back and forth like a emotional version of Poe’s Pit and the Pendulum.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think it’s necessarily a good thing to have a stick up your ass about your problems all the time. Black humor is what got me through my warzone of a childhood and it has served me well through this current cancer zone, as well.

But it’s also good to remember — to acknowledge to myself and to others — that sometimes my cancer is not going to be amusing. It’s actually going to make me cry in front of you. Or stay at home curled in a ball under my coffee table. And despite the fact that I’m no longer in treatment, my grand cancer adventure is not over by a long shot.

Although, thankfully, neither is Chuckles’ brave little standup routine.

In search of holiday redemption

24 Dec

So a funny thing happened a week ago Friday while I was out Christmas shopping. I ran into the ex who dumped me after my breast cancer diagnosis.

While this was the first time I’d seen in him in about nine months, it wasn’t the first time we’d talked. Ironically, he’d called out of the blue the night before my Cancer Kiss-Off: Getting Dumped After Diagnosis story ran on Today.com. Talk about timing.

Not surprisingly, that initial phone conversation was pretty awkward, but at the heart of it was an apology, which was incredibly therapeutic for me to hear. After all, the guy had disappeared on the eve of my double mastectomy, with nary a phone call or text to see if I’d come out of the thing alive. I don’t remember a lot from that call except that he did say that he was sorry for abandoning me and that he was concerned that his disappearance might have adversely affected my healing.  I remember thanking him for being man enough to tell me that and informed him that I was healing just fine, thanks to my strength and fitness level and all the love and support I’d received from family and friends. I remember, also, that I didn’t cry or scream or whine or call him names, although I did mention that a friend of mine had just the day before referred to his behavior as cold. And perhaps heartless.

Then all of a sudden, that cold, heartless guy was looking up at me as I was coming down an escalator at Pacific Place, a swanky shopping center in downtown Seattle. I got off the escalator and the two of us walked a little ways, stopping in front of the windows of Barney’s. He said I looked good (I figured he imagined I’d still be wearing a hospital gown and pushing an IV pole); I said he did, too. We then indulged in some polite holiday chitchat about who we were shopping for and so on and so forth, until it was time for one of us to address the 5,000 pound elephant lying on the shiny tile floor between us. I told him I still had lots of questions about what had happened and that I often wondered if he’d been in a car accident or arrested or perhaps been stricken with amnesia. What else could prevent a so-called friend — and lover — from picking up the phone to make sure I’d survived surgery? He apologized again and talked about his tendency to “unplug” when things got out of control. He then provided some additional information about troubles he’d had on his end — with work, with family, with money, etc. — qualifying it again and again by saying it was nothing compared to what I’d been through.

We talked for about 15 or 20 minutes and then it was time to go. He told me, for about the fifth time, that he was amazed I was even speaking to him. “It’s been a tough year,” I told him. “And life is short. I don’t want to carry around a bunch of anger and bitterness.” Besides, I said, gesturing towards the holiday shoppers, the decorations, the tree, the tinny carols, “It’s Christmas.”

I walked away feeling pretty strong about the whole thing until I got back to my neighborhood. That’s when I ducked into my local watering hole and downed a martini in about fifteen seconds flat, then text messaged about 17 girlfriends to let them know what had happened. Not surprisingly, I was suddenly very shaky. It wasn’t that this guy was the love of my life and seeing him again had completely done a number on my heart (it had been bruised, to be sure, but not completely battered). It was more that seeing him was like riding a bullet train back to those early days of diagnosis: the punch to the stomach when I learned about the four tumors that lay hidden in my breasts, the gut-wrenching news that I was going to lose my girls. Followed by my hair. And if luck decided to take another bad turn, my life.

Incredibly, he called the following Monday night and we talked again. Along with some mundane updates on where we were with our lives, there were more explanations and more apologies. I explained to him a bit of what I’d been through  — “Yes, my hair looks different because I’m wearing a wig” — without going into too much detail (I was the first person he’d ever known with cancer and I wanted to try to educate him about the disease a little). He talked about how upsetting it was for him to be completely unable to fix things when they go wrong and that he sometimes just had to walk away when things were too broken. Like me, I guess. He alluded to the fact that the cancer was scary to him (yeah, I know what you mean, buddy). Then he told me that he was going to have to live with the guilt over the way he had treated me for the rest of his life.

“Well, I guess my job is done then,” I told him, laughing. It’s hard for me to remain serious about anything for too long — bad relationships, breast cancer, the abuse I suffered as a child. Joking about these things is the only way I can maintain power and control over them.

Then out of the blue, I asked if he would like to work off some of that guilt. “I need somebody to take my air conditioner out of my window,” I told him. “You did it for me last year. Maybe you wouldn’t mind coming over and doing it again?” He was there the next night and had the air conditioner in its box and in the closet before he’d even taken of his coat. He also had a Christmas present for me, a completely unexpected act of kindness (or guilt-induced kindness) that I still find sort of puzzling.

To be honest, the whole thing is sort of puzzling. I know that his disappearance was devastating to me at the time, even though deep down I knew our fledgling relationship was probably doomed from the start, with or without the complication of cancer. But that devastation wasn’t just due to his disappearance. It was also about the diagnosis, the surgery, the loss of my breasts, my health, my wholeness. Nine months later, it’s almost impossible to separate the strings.

The ex and the cancer are so inextricably linked, in fact, that it’s almost as if my breast cancer has suddenly shown up on my doorstep to apologize for fucking me up. Which, I have to say, is not an unwelcome turn of events. Part of me realizes that this is ridiculous, of course; that my ex is a man and nothing more. A scared, guilt-ridden, flawed man who fucked up royally but has enough self-awareness and strength to own up to it. And since it’s Christmas and since I’m a forgiving person, what choice do I have but to proffer some much-needed holiday redemption?

The real question, of course, is will I ever have the strength to forgive myself — my body — for getting sick in the first place? Will I ever be able to show it the same courtesy, the same affection, the same level of love and absolution?

That’s something I’m still working on. And if ever there’s a time for it, I’d say it’s now.

Celebrity breast cancer twin: reader responses

10 Dec

I got some great responses to the essay I wrote about my “celebrity breast cancer twin” Giuliana Rancic, the E news! cohost who announced last Monday that she was going to have to have a double mastectomy, thanks to the advanced nature of her cancer.

Like me, some readers identified wholeheartedly with the shock, devastation and grief that goes along with knowing you’re going to lose your girls. Others brought up some valid points, for instance, the dearth of good, hard information that accompanied the announcement re Rancic’s forthcoming double mastectomy.

“I don’t have any problem with celebrities discussing their cancer,” wrote Jody here on doublewhammied.com. “The problem is that many of them, including Giuliana, don’t offer the kind of detail that could go a long way toward honestly educating others about early breast cancer. It is not about cancer stage but tumor biology; or the pathology of the tumor. I think to go on TV the moment you’ve stumbled out of the surgeon’s office is a mistake. The morning television shows do little to elaborate.”

I, too, am curious about what type of breast cancer Rancic has (I haven’t been able to find out any information on that), but do know the double lumpectomies that she underwent in October weren’t able to gain clear margins, hence the decision to move forward with the double mastectomy. 

Oddly enough, I got into a discussion regarding Rancic’s cancer with my breast cancer surgeon as she was removing my chemo port the other day (anything to keep my mind off the digging going on over on my right side). I wondered aloud if Rancic might have invasive lobular carcinoma (“my” cancer) because she had it in both breasts (ILC has a tendency to show up in tandem, aka, the old “double whammy”). My breast cancer surgeon wondered if it might be invasive ductal carcinoma since they initially tried to eradicate it with lumpectomies and radiation.

I guess that makes me an official breast cancer wonk. But I’m not alone.

Vanessa wrote to say she’s glad celebrities are coming forward about their breast cancer, but they’re not sharing enough. “I must admit I am a little upset that they aren’t talking about anything but the surgery,” she wrote. “What about the chemo and the radiation? … People need to understand that this is not a ‘take a pill and feel better in the morning’ type illness.”

And MaryBeth felt that Rancic’s “no big deal” attitude — not to mention her youth, beauty and privileged lifestyle — made it tough for the rest of us schmucks.

“It’s a total nightmare and underselling it like it’s some cool right of passage for the righteous, rich and beautiful does more harm than good for those of us everyday schlumps who have to schlep through it without the makeup artists, personal trainers, stylists, etc.,” she wrote.

As one of those everyday schlumps, I get what you’re saying, MaryBeth.  But for me, the bottom line is Rancic – beautiful or not, rich or not, primped and pampered and styled to within an inch of her life or not — is still losing her breasts. She may have better doctors, plastic surgeons, health care, physical therapy, makeup artists, life partners, publicity, etc, but she’s still going to wake up with those horrible drains attached to a flat chest covered with bandages and bruises and not much else. She’s going to have a wonderful erogenous zone replaced by a useless Dead Zone. And if she is able to have a baby (I think this is still on the table), she certainly won’t be able to nurse it.

So yes, she may be better off than the rest of us. But in many ways — important ways — she’s in the exact same boat as all of us, crossing those same choppy, dark, terrifying seas.

Anyway, that’s my rant for the day. As always, thanks for reading and writing and best to you all, especially those newly diagnosed women I’ve talked to recently. You are strong and brave and beautiful and absolutely capable of getting through this breast cancer crap (and, believe me, it is crap, whether you’re a star or a starving freelance writer). I believe in you and am here for you whenever you need me.

Also, one brief, heartfelt note of thanks to Stephanie, a 30-year-old single mom diagnosed in October of last year, who wrote, “I just wanted to send you an email thanking you for your candid insight and sharing your experiences for the rest of us out here … I would like to consider you my twin and think we will win these battles together.”

Cheers to that, twin!

Giuliana Rancic, my celebrity breast cancer twin

5 Dec

I got a call from my editor a couple of days ago, sharing some top secret (sad) news.

Giuliana Rancic, the young and vivacious cohost of E! News who’d appeared on the TODAY show in October to discuss her recent breast cancer diagnosis, was coming back on the show early Monday morning to talk about her latest news. She now had to have a double mastectomy.

Would I like to write about this? my editor asked. Absolutely, I told her.

As someone who only too recently lived through a cast-iron-skillet-to-the-head cancer diagnosis and a double mastectomy (not to mention chemo and radiation), I had plenty to say. (Check out some of my previous essays about breast cancer on Today.com and you’ll see what I mean.)

Here’s how my latest piece, entitled Giuliana Rancic, my celebrity breast cancer twin, starts. As always, thanks for the read.

Some women look to celebrities when they’re pregnant, identifying with famous moms-to-be who are due around the same date.

Others, like me, look for celebrity cancer twins, like E! News host Giuliana Rancic, who just joined the ranks of my small group of hapless — but hardly hopeless — heroes.

Don’t get me wrong; I wouldn’t wish cancer on anyone. But there’s something incredibly powerful about a smart, successful celeb letting down her perfectly coiffed hair to speak openly, honestly and even fearfully about a wretched, life-changing disease that has turned her world — and mine — completely upside down.

Wanda Sykes is another such cancer twin. Diagnosed in February of this year (same as me), the comedian went on Ellen back in September to talk about her double mastectomy. During the interview, which I’ve probably watched a dozen times, Sykes looks healthy and beautiful and strong. More importantly, she’s fazed but still funny, taking potshots at her cancer as if she were back roasting the president at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

NBC News’ tough, tenacious Andrea Mitchell is another cancer twin. Ditto for Christina Applegate .

And now there’s Rancic, the 37-year-old funny, self-effacing cohost of E! News and Fashion Police, who discovered her disease while prepping for a third round of in vitro fertilization treatments.

To read the full story click here.  

As always, I’m curious how others deal with their breast cancer. Have any of you adopted “celebrity cancer twins,” people who were diagnosed at the same time you were (with breast cancer or anything else)?

If so, have they inspired you? Helped you get through your ordeal? Made you so angry that you fought even harder? Would love to hear your thoughts.

In search of my new bionic boobs

2 Dec

So today’s a big day for me. In about two hours, I’ll be meeting with my plastic surgeon to see what effect the six plus weeks of radiation had on my left side. I’d say my left breast, but there’s not much breast left. There’s a nipple and skin and scars and scar tissue which has adhered to the muscle wall. Your basic beat-up 10-year-old boy look. But with a lot of luck, I’ll hear today that I’ll soon be getting a breast there, hopefully without too much trouble.

That last is a bit facetious since breast reconstruction is not an easy process, although many people still equate it with cosmetic breast enhancement, which is a much simpler, almost cut-and-dried procedure these days. Reconstruction, however, is much more complicated and can involve multiple surgeries and long recovery times. I’m praying that I’ll be able to get what I call the “easy-peasy” reconstruction method involving tissue expanders and implants.

With this method, you basically get a couple of empty tires surgically implanted behind your chest wall which the plastic surgeon pumps up once a week or so (via some kind of valve) until you have the right size. Then they swap out the full tires for your implants (either saline or silicone – still haven’t decided yet) during surgery. I’ll be doing this with my right side which didn’t go through radiation, but the big question is what will happen with old Lefty.

If radiation has screwed the pooch on my skin there (and according to my radiation oncologist, it does with maybe one third of the women who go through it), the skin won’t be able to stretch enough to hold a tissue expander. Which means they’ll be “borrowing” tissue and muscle from other parts of my body to “build a boob.” (When I first heard this, I immediately pictured them nicking tissue from my butt, my thighs, my right armpit, my left knee and sort of cobbling it all together like a boob hot dog. Such is not the case.)

Instead, they usually borrow tissue from one place, like your belly — especially for women who’ve had kids (instant tummy tuck!). Unfortunately (or not), I haven’t had kids and was told during my first consult that my stomach wasn’t big enough to use for the “build a boob” method, which is officially known as a tram flap. (This is another one of those backhanded cancer compliments, like “You’re so young, you’ll be a great candidate for chemotherapy.” The first time I heard that, I didn’t know whether to cry because of the impending chemo or preen because of the “young” word. At 53, you take what you can get.)

Anyway, since I can’t get a tram flap, they’d be looking elsewhere for that muscle and tissue. On my body, not anyone else’s (I’ve had plenty of sweet offers from friends willing to sacrifice their pot bellies for my new boob but the tissue’s got to come from me).  If I have to go with this method, it’ll mean scrapping my carefully saved (and diligently moisturized) skin and nipple on the left side and replacing it with a hunk of flesh from my latissimus dorsi in a procedure known as a “lat flap.” It’ll also mean multiple surgeries to create a nipple, then tattoo the nipple (and aerola). Plus recovery time for both my front and my back. Plus the loss of muscle on my back, etc. etc. 

None of this sounds like a good time to me. If I had my druthers, I wouldn’t have any of it. Not even the tissue expanders embedded in my chest because from what I’ve heard, they can hurt like a son of a bitch as well as feeling like a couple of rocks attached to your chest (can’t wait to see the expression on some swing dance lead’s face when I shove those puppies up next to him).

But the thing is, I want my boobs back — I miss them, I need them, and yeah, I feel like I deserve them, especially after all I’ve been through these last 10 months.

So, yes, I’ll do what I can do get them — endure the pain of the tissue expanders, suffer through multiple surgeries (if necessary) to build a boob out of bits and pieces of my body. And yes, even shamelessly put up a blog post like this, asking all of you to keep your fingers, legs, toes and whatever else crossed for me today.

As always, thanks for the read and for any and all good wishes you can send my way today. Talk to you soon.

Dating with breast cancer

22 Nov

A few weeks back, I published a story for MSNBC/Today called The Cancer Kiss-Off:  Getting dumped after diagnosis, prompted by some interesting research, some killer anecdotes and my own personal experience.

Now while it’s true that a study conducted by a handful of researchers, including Dr. Marc Chamberlain of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, did find that women diagnosed with cancer or MS are six times more likely to be separated than a man diagnosed with the same disease (as Chamberlain put it, “there was a disproportionate number of partner abandonments in female patients.”)

And while it’s also true that the fledging relationship I was in imploded shortly after my breast cancer diagnosis (oddly enough, after months of silence, the guy actually called to apologize for ditching me the very night before my Cancer Kiss-Off story went live – weird!), I don’t think breast cancer and broken hearts are a natural pairing, unless of course you’re married to Newt Gingrich.

Sometimes, the cancer diagnosis is just the straw that breaks Cupid’s already bowed back. Other times, a woman diagnosed with breast cancer may decide that life’s too short and staying in an unhappy and unhealthy relationship with an unsupportive partner is far worse than fighting this crappy disease alone.

Whatever the case, some of us with breast cancer eventually find ourselves Out There. And according to the women (and men) I talked to for a recent story I did for Match.com’s online magazine Happen, it’s not really that bad, especially if you have the right attitude.

And according to Gina Maisano, author of Intimacy After Breast Cancer, attitude is everything when it comes to dating — especially for women dealing with breast cancer.

“You can look at yourself as damaged goods or you can look at yourself as the strongest superhero on the planet,” Masaino says in my new story. “Surviving the words ‘You have cancer’ is enough to win a medal of honor. But to come out standing strong and moving forward with your life instead of living in a closet, that’s a powerful woman — and you should be proud of yourself.”

I’ve certainly been trying to give the whole dating with BC thing a go and have found it to be a mixed bag. Some guys completely get what you’ve been through and think of you as a cross between The Big C’s Laura Linney and Xena, the Cancer Warrior Princess. Other would just as soon steer the conversation back to their own fascinating challenges, like learning how to fly fish (yep, been there, suffered through that). Still others want to talk exclusively about reconstruction, as in when are you getting your new boobs and just how big are these boobs going to be. Sigh.

The bottom line is people are people and just because you’re an official card-carrying member of the Cancer Club, it doesn’t mean they’re going to act any better or worse than they normally would. That’s what makes life so fun and interesting and, yes, infuriating, at times. But you have to admit, it’s not boring. And that, my friends, is something.

So have you done any dating since your diagnosis? Have you, like me, actually tried to date through chemotherapy and radiation? If so, I’d love to hear about it. In the meantime, feel free to read about some inspiring success stories in my latest piece, Dating with Breast Cancer.  

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