After moving to Santa Barbara last year, I heard about your blog. I was diagnosed in 2009 with breast cancer and survived through the ringer of mastectomy, chemo, radiation and seemingly every side effect known to man. You’ve done an amazing job. I just started my own blog,www.baldisbetterwithearrings.com where I’m trying to share all the hints and tips I picked up along my very bumpy road. I learned a lot during my initiation into the Cancer Club. Actually, I call it the CSC – the Cancer Sucks Club. I asked every survivor and every nurse for their tips to make my life a little easier and I’m trying to share them all. One post at a time. Good luck and stay well.

    Dear Hollye, My name is Katie Stotler, 2 years ago I underwent a bilateral mastectomy. After coming home from my surgery I had to deal many difficulties including the presence of four drains. I had purchased a camisole from a local store which I found added to my discomfort. The camisole was not only visually unappealing, but the drain pouches were too high and I had an allergic reaction to the Velcro. I decided there needed to be a better product on the market. I teamed up with a friend and spent months researching fabrics, trims, fits and since then have developed a camisole I wish I had. The Perfect Camisole, as I like to call it, has everything women would need after surgery. Our fabric choice was a soft cotton which a touch of modal that washes and wears with ease. Subtle exterior and interior pockets accommodate …

I was reading today a lot of your stories, and I realized how much some of the stories I have been reading are similar to mine. It made me very emotional and in some ways i felt very close to these women i will never meet . Sorry, my english is not very good. I am French I am 41 years old and I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in my right breast on March 17, 2011. I was nursing my daughter when i felt a lump in my right breast, I first had a bad feeling and then I thought it was a clogged milk duct. I already had this “problem” a couple of times. I tried to solve this the way I used to do, but the mass was not going, it was big and hard. So big than my husband told me first than it …

It’s very hard to share my story or to find a place where I feel I belong because when I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in my right breast on January 16, 2011, I chose to opt out of the current standard of care treatments. Instead I had two lumpectomies (a second for wider clear margins). It was hard to stay “out of the main stream” treatment. But as I left my Oncologist’s office after stating my choices, she gave me a beautiful gift. She wrote on a piece of paper “David Servan-Schreiber MD ANTICANCER: A New Way of Life” and handed it to me, saying ” if this is the path you are choosing, you will need this book.” This book changed my life, my eating style and I am alive and cancer-free today because of the choices and changes I made in February and March of …

I am a 36 yr old female who was diagnose with Breast Cancer on Feb. 15,2011. I had stage one on left and stage two on right with skin involvement and lymphnode removed on right side from involvement. I also had a double mysectomy last April and facing reconstruction in the fall.I had about 6 months of chemo and 6 weeks of radiation. I was told on March 21,2012 that there is no present signs of cancer.That was a year in waiting especially after I was told from previous Oncology dr that i will never here those words.That is because i have a very rare mutation that me and my sister got from my late father. My sister is a tyroid and breast cancer survivor also. I also am about less than a month out of radiation treatment. I have some more genetic testing to do for two more gene …

I have just spent the last 3 hours reading your “Silver Lining” story of your experiences with and surviving Breast Cancer. Wow!  This is my story: I am an educator, a wife, a daughter, a sister and a mother of 3 (one daughter 15, a 14 & 8 yr. old son. I was on with my normal busy hectic life. When, I decided to call in to have a routine yearly check up. When, it hit me that I had cancelled the previous year”s appointment. When, I arrived my doctor was called away to assist with someone giving birth, so they (nurses) asked if I would like to see the physician’s assistant. Well, I said of course (since I really have a thing about going & sitting for hours at doctor’s offices). Everything was going great as I we were coming to the finishing up of this check-up. When the …

I don’t have cancer, but I have a chronic neurological illness that is very painful and potentially fatal: chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy or CIDP. My memoir, Fierce Joy -which offers a quite a number of silver linings is being published by Greenpoint Press, New York, NY. It tells the story of how illness shattered our lives–I have a loving husband and at that time two young children–and how I learned to listen to my body, rediscover my soul, and discover that despite everything I was buoyed up by a fierce joy that just wouldn’t quit. I also discovered that my body was not the enemy and my body hadn’t betrayed me; rather, my body and I were both being attacked by disease. That was a huge step toward healing, even though I could never be cured. I also learned that I could react to my disease like an adult woman …

Thank you Hollye for allowing me to share my story——-Sue Walking down the dim hallway, I have a light bulb moment; “I don’t need any more answers, I no longer need to research about my breast cancer.” At that moment in time my roller coaster of feelings came to a close. Before that, I was always stressed, never comfortable with the uncertainty waiting for the next shoe to drop. I was scared and of course, clinical (since I am an RN after all), researching and searching for answers. Self-care was a big focus for me. I used exercise, yoga, acupressure, and retail therapy with friends to keep me sane. Love was abundant from family and friends. After 3 lumpectomies (because no one ever expected to find any cancer), the specimens were sent for gene testing. All the while, I was hoping, for a positive outcome. After a university tumor board …

I have just started my “journey” , not a term I’ve always got on with, but as a nurse placed a name tag on my bag to be taken to the ward and I was taken to theatre, I bizarrely felt I was embarking on some sort of holiday (vacation) and my journey did indeed begin. I was diagnosed with FBC on 10th Feb 2012 and had a right mastectomy with expander reconstruction on 14 th March. I am yet to find out what follow up treatment I will have. TheBritish experience seems quite different from the US, probably due to NHS ( National Health Service). I can’t fault the care and treatment I have had so far but feel it is all being done to me with little choice. Having said that, I feel I am in good hands and believe I am getting the best the NHS can …