Category: Uncategorized
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Thrilled to be Flat Chested
If you know my father, he is the embodiment of a traditional Irish man. He keeps all his emotions locked up inside unless the Yankees are losing then clear the room immediately. The boomer generation seems to think therapy is for the weak and for many years that was how my dad saw it. So…
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The Reality of Chemotherapy: Part Two
After 9 hours of sitting in a chair, I was told I was now a step closer to beating this and sent on my way. I was told symptoms would probably start within a few days. Being the foodie I am, I was praying they wouldn’t start until Friday because Thursday was Thanksgiving. I had…
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The Reality of Chemotherapy: Part One
In these posts, I have been vulnerable with sharing my thoughts and experiences. I want people to know how cancer isn’t just a diagnosis. Cancer is a word that we hear in passing as we are running through life at full speed. Your high school friend’s father has cancer or the neighbor tells you her…
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The Wrong Girl
When I made this blog, I was days away from my first chemotherapy session and I had no idea what was in store for me. I had conceived myself that I was super human and wouldn’t be affected by the lifesaving, yet poison like, medical concoction. I tend to be over confident in my abilities…
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I get by with a little help from my friends
When your friend is 28 years old you expect the normal news from them, I’m pregnant or we bought a house. You never expect the phone call where she tells you she has at least stage three breast cancer and starts chemotherapy in a week. It’s not something you’d expect or want to hear at…
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Claire
I got pregnant with Claire when Maggie was 15 months old. We were in our second year of medical school holding on to every cent and hadn’t slept in what felt like years. Sam was working his ass off and I had opened our tiny two bedroom apartment to another kid Maggie’s age for extra…
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The Distraction
I could lie to you and say it was love at first sight for Sam and me but that would be a very large lie. He was calling names at the auditions for our college’s Co-Ed acapella group and I was laying on the floor having a panic attack. When he called my name I…
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No Saying Goodbye
When you become a parent, you realize that you would give your life for that little baby. Protecting them is an overwhelming duty that you immediately gain and that pressure can be frightening. You imagine having to lift cars or reenact the movie Taken. You never imagine keeping yourself alive would be your biggest battle…
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Are you sitting down?
After a life changing 5 hours, we got in the car and just sat. What now? We were told the unthinkable. We were now waiting for multiple calls to schedule port surgery, multiple different body scans, and when I would be starting chemo. We realized we needed to start telling our loved ones. I first…
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Cut it out
When my doctor said the word “cancer,” it wasn’t like the movies where the camera zooms in on your face, or your doctor starts sounding like a teacher from peanuts. I immediately thought to myself “okay, we just cut it out and I’m fine”. He told us we would be moving this conversation to his…
Moms Don’t Get Sick 