Ladies, you don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone, right? Well nipples are no different. If you know a gal who’s had or is about to have a double mastectomy with no nipple sparing, please, give her some love… and be grateful for your own nipples! Breast reconstruction final stage – tattoos!! Contrary to popular belief, breast reconstruction after …
From Breast Reconstruction to Birthday Boobs
Fifty seven Septembers ago, my mom was born. A beautiful, playful, fiery spirit, she began captivating everyone around her. Lover of bicycles and frozen yogurt, laughing loud and roughhousing with the pets, late night walks for dream-sharing and gossip-swapping, she is by far the most entertaining, loving woman I know. With a fulfilling life as a first grade teacher, planning …
Boobies Go ByeBye, Mastectomy Time
I check the fluids on mom’s IV pole—Lactated Ringers, or breakfast in a bag, as we nurses call it. “That’s your morning omelet and coffee,” I tell my mom. She grunts from hunger, since she has not being allowed to eat since midnight last night. As she lies on the gurney, her light blue surgical cap gradually slides down her …
28 Ways to Show You Care
Your friend, family member, or coworker has cancer, so now it’s time to put yourself aside and focus on her. You’re up to bat! Cancer either makes relationships grow or fall apart, and if you can’t connect, you’re out of the game. If you’re scared too, and don’t know how to help or what to say, I’ve got ya covered. …
The Power of Laughter
I say now with all the joy in my heart, that my mom gracefully won the cancer battle, is now done with five months of chemo, 6½ weeks of daily radiation, and is completely cancer-free. Her hair is growing back, she’s regaining her energy, and she’s a more inspired, happy woman now than I’ve ever seen her before. During her …
Food (or lack thereof) and Cancer
A lot of patients ask me what to eat while they’re on chemo, and I never feel like I have enough time give them a complete answer. Chemotherapy, by definition, kills cells that divide rapidly, which includes all the cells lining the digestive tract, making patients sensitive to certain foods. The cancer experience in general is very individual, and …
Visualization for Healing Cancer?
Visualization. What comes to your mind when you hear that word? Maybe you think of the Law of Attraction, that it’s a bunch of hocus pocus? It’s useful for more than just goal achievement strategies. In fact, it’s well known now, that our brains can’t tell the difference if an action is real or imagined. For example, when you visualize yourself doing squats …
The Blessings and Bother of Cancer Support
The other day I was infusing chemo for an attractive middle-aged women wearing a brunette wig, and I knew that like all the other patients I had been giving chemo to, she would be going home to friends and family with questions and expressions of support, some of it indispensable, some of it unwelcome. After caring for so many cancer …
The Big Day, First Chemo
So here we are. Almost two months after her initial diagnosis, today she gets her first chemo. The four of us, my mom, dad, grandpa, and myself, sit in the open concept, brightly lit infusion center. It’s a large half moon-shaped room with the recliners, separated by curtains, facing a well-groomed peaceful garden with a full-size fountain. Before starting the …
Surgery Time
An early morning surgery in Beverly Hills, we checked in at 6am for a 7 o’clock start time, to find and remove the sentinel node, and any surrounding suspicious nodes, and to implant her port-a-cath. Dad and I sat in a fashionable urban waiting room, with inviting upholstered sofas, and blossoming pink orchids in every corner. The sunrise soon poured …