What's Up (Some Tough News)

Over the past couple of weeks, I have slowly been sharing my tough news with individual family members and friends. It can be exhausting, so please forgive me if this is how you are learning that I was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

If you know me, you likely are aware that writing is my best medium for processing, so I have decided to join the blogging ranks as a way to do so and also to share information (both useful and useless, to be sure) about my breast cancer experiences. Please consider yourself warned that I will be talking about anatomy (specifically, breasts). 

If you know me, you might also be aware that I do not do "average," so naturally I would have a special kind, or subtype, of cancer that is known as "triple negative." Triple negative is deceptive in that it makes you think (if you don't know any better) that it is a good thing. "Woo-hoo! Triple! Negative! On a medical test result!" But now I know better so I can share with you, dear reader, that it is perhaps not a good thing; at best, a mixed bag.  

Before I go into further detail about my diagnosis (which I will do in my next post), I do want to assure you that a) I have excellent doctors, and b) they are very, very positive about my treatment being a success. (Quote one doc, "It won't be the Fall that you had in mind.") In fact, it has been a small ego boost to so consistently hear about how young and healthy I am. (I am working on getting them to add "fabulous" to this list.) They have also assured me that I will be able to live a mostly normal* life. My surgeon, Dr. V., gave me several examples of patients that he is treating who also have triple negative breast cancer and who are active and working. I have been told that treatment has come so far in recent years that they are able to largely eliminate much of those well-known side-effects such as nausea, fatigue, and the need to avoid crowds for fear of germs. Dr. V. shared with us that one of his patients is a working kindergarten teacher (think of that petri dish of germs!). 

As many of you are also aware, we recently moved (back) to the D.C. area. I had been working as a political consultant in Minnesota, and was deep in the process of a job search here. I have enjoyed reconnecting with old friends and colleagues all summer, a process which I put on hold initially after learning that I would have several tests to get through before we had a full picture of my health status and treatment plan. I still have many people with whom I have not had the chance to reconnect, and I hope that we can plan something soon. 

In terms of my job search, I do plan to shift course a little and to seek project/contract or part-time work rather than full-time with an organization, at least through the end of 2017. Flexible scheduling will be helpful, as I will have chemo each Friday until mid-December, when I will move to a schedule of just once every 3 weeks. I am incredibly lucky to be married to a member of a labor union and thus I have excellent health insurance benefits (I will definitely be writing more about health care in later posts). Please note that I can and must work. Medical professionals have encouraged it-- frankly it is important for mental well-being to remain an active member of society and to maintain a mostly normal life during this horribly abnormal time.

I will get through this successfully with love, humor, a mostly plant-based diet plus a ton of prescribed drugs, and with the amazing people supporting me. Thanks for being one of them. I love you. I will beat this.

*Please note that I use the word "normal" here to reference my personal normal way of living. This word is often loaded with default-laden meanings and interpretations, and I in no way am leaning into that; simply a way to describe that I will be functioning mostly or almost-nearly at my regular levels.

Selected quote:

"It won't be the Fall that you had in mind." -- Dr. H.

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