Breast Cancer Symposium

My survivors' group, YWBCP, had its annual symposium yesterday-- truly a mixed blessing. Powerful tool for learning, wonderful to commune with my warrior sisters, absolutely terrifying to hear the tales of recurrence and metastasis and to realize the many things that I should be doing to increase my own chance of survival.

The fact that I am becoming extremely fit is a great advantage, true. But limiting alcohol consumption is hugely important. And, frighteningly, NO level of consumption of polyunsaturated fats is safe for a survivor. None.

There are issues as to soy and as to processed products-- white sugar and white flour should be no-nos. Insulin spikes (after, say, Halloween candy) are now thought to be extremely dangerous for survivors. And yet, have you ever tried to purchase a diet of whole wheat products with no white sugar and organic fruits and vegetables? There's a reason "Whole Foods" is often called "Whole Paycheck." So the chances of my survival hinge, at least partially, on my income. Sickening.

Nonetheless, it is a powerful thing to be with my sisters. And I am grateful to only be wearing the pink scarf of a one-year survivor, as opposed to the white scarf of a woman with metastasis.

Above are a few photos I took of Beth and Marsha, two of my favorites. Beth is the one in single photo with me. She's got the same amount of hair I had the last time I saw her: she had "hair envy" back then. We're hoping to get picked for the trout fishing retreat together.

Beth and I are really bonded in many ways, not least of which is our shared mania about the gym. Survivors sometimes fixate of some aspect of post-treatment life. We have both grasped fitness as something we can control about our bodies. There are, as I'm sure you understand, so many things which we cannot control about our bodies and their propensity to become cancer-ridden again. But fitness? that we can control. So we are warriors in the gym, hoping to stave off the weakness of our bodies with respect to cancer.

The trout fishing retreat is just another of the "goodies" we survivors often get. Recently we got a fistful of concert tickets. (Sadly it was Neil Diamond, but I guess I could've heard "Sweet Caroline" live, so that's something.) But they're always doing something nice for us, particularly last month, which was BC month.

Anyway, everyone's amused by my abruptly blonde head. I told them: "I've been bald; what do I have to be afraid of?" Perhaps unnecessary to say, but they all "got" that.

So now I plan to eat a little better and go back to forgetting, as much as possible, that my life expectancy is different from last year. In my future? More genetic testing, more check-ups and possibly the removal of all my internal girlie bits. With a family history like mine, I would probably take them out, myself, if I could. But stay tuned. The good news? I understand my stuff can be taken out laproscopically, so less time out off from teaching and the gym. Yippee.

Oh and I must mention that Christy is on the 3-Day Komen walk next week. Think the good thought for her, would you?