Before Allyson found her cancer, she was actually getting regular mammograms for four years. However her cancer was found because she felt a pain in her breast, right where her underwire bra fit, and knew that it wasn’t right. Her doctor swore it was nothing, most likely due to the fact that she was getting those regular mammograms. But she was diagnosed with DCIS. She was that RARE form of DCIS. While DCIS is now found far m...
Part 2 of 2: Nine of the 15 women interviewed in the THEIR STORIES series had a mastectomy of some sort. As you can imagine the details are pretty extensive. So here’s part 2 of 2. Their story of how they came to the decision of mastectomy, single or double, then their procedures, reconstruction and recovery.
Music by Becca Ayers
Additional Music by Baby Goes Bang (Becca Ayers & Russ Rowland)
Graphic Art by Justin West
Websi...
Part 1 of 2: Nine of the 15 women interviewed in the THEIR STORIES series had a mastectomy of some sort. As you can imagine the details are pretty extensive. So here’s part 1 of 2. Their story of how they came to the decision of mastectomy, single or double, then their procedures, reconstruction and recovery.
Music by Becca Ayers
Additional Music by Baby Goes Bang (Becca Ayers & Russ Rowland)
Graphic Art by Justin West
Websi...
Being a caregiver, takes its toll on your life. The person receiving the diagnosis, their life of course turns upside down, but the part that sucks even more is knowing that it will turn the caregiver’s life a fast 180 as well. The thing to remember most, that, just like cancer, you are not alone. Sadly you are not the first to be a caregiver to someone with cancer. You’re not the only one going through it now, and even more un...
Even though the surgery, hospital stay and recovery for a mastectomy with prosthesis is shorter than if you use your own tissue, aka the FLAP surgery, there are multiple procedures following to complete your reconstruction. But with most good things in life, sometimes it’s definitely worth the wait.
References:
Music by Becca Ayers
Graphic Art by Justin West
Website Design by Alec Ad...
When a woman is told she needs to have a mastectomy, there’s a world wind of thoughts, questions, worries, and more that come forth. Besides the why a mastectomy at all and the medicine and science that come with that or the decision of choosing a single vs a double and what comes with that … there’s also the question of ‘what will it look like afterwards?’ ‘what will I look like afterwards?’ Beyond the medical reasons, the actu...
Meet Pam. Pam and I are friends. Pam and I have been friends since 2013. EXCEPT, when we realized as we prepared to talk over zoom, that we have no mutual friends. We have no similar places or organizations in our past, have no common friends in places we’ve lived. Freaky right? Well it would be, if we just did like each other so much.
Music by Becca Ayers
Graphic Art by Justin West
Website Design by Alec Addalia
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Growing up with a mom that is an identical twin, well, it’s never dull. Even though they have lived apart by thousands of miles, my entire life, there are still times, even now in their 70’s, in which they still do their ‘twin’ thing. And know that I’ve started documenting these moments as they occur with my own identical twins. Can you say genetic? Well, not our cancer. Listen to my Aunt Kathleen, share her story.
Music by Bec...
With any life altering event, there’s always a before and an after. And the ‘after’ becomes just normal life. But when that life altering event is a tragedy of sorts, the ‘after’ becomes your ‘new normal.’ No one CHOOSES cancer. This is our new normal, because we didn’t choose it. It happened to us. But it’s in the after that we do choose how we let it affect us, and how we affect others.
As we close out 2020, I want to take time in this week’s episode to simply say thanks. So many others lived through more hardships, tragedies and losses, this year than I think any other year. And to add the effects of a pandemic on top of that? Just like cancer, the pandemic affects everyone.
So goodbye to 2020. And hello 2021. We welcome you with open arms.
Email us at BadRightBreast@gmail.com
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All my life I thought that if I had cancer, it would be because of my mom’s side of the family. But having to do the genetic research for testing, I realized that my dad’s side would be the culprit. Just goes to show you, that you should take the time during this holiday season and sit down on ZOOM to discuss it with your family as much as you can.
Music by Becca Ayers
Additional Music by Baby Goes Bang (Becca Ayers & Russ Row...
There are some things that we want to keep secret from our kids – Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny. Just some things to keep them ‘kids’ for as long as possible. But there are some things that you just can’t keep secret. Or can you? Just as with everything else with cancer, the experience of telling your kids is unique to you. That we all tell our stories in our own ways, and once again how they react to it, also...
It’s taken me YEARS to understand the stages of cancer, and yet I still don’t. While I had to wait until after my bilateral mastectomy to find out my stage of cancer, I’ve known others to find out prior to any surgery, by just looking at scans, or even the biopsy pathology results. No matter when you find out, the process to get to that moment, will most likely go through a pathologist, and that pathologist will converse directly...
What happens when you refuse to allow cancer to disrupt your life, and you plow through it all – diagnosis, treatment and recovery? Well, it sometimes takes beating cancer to realize, maybe you should slow it down a bit.
You can follow Katy’s organization, Les Trefles du Coeur, on Facebook and Instagram @lestreflesducoeur.
Just in time for Thanksgiving, a time when we need to thank everyone who came to us, our families and friends, when we needed it most. Our brave 15 once again, tell us how difficult, and sometimes very easy, it was (still is) to simply ask for help.
Music by Becca Ayers
Graphic Art by Justin West
Website Design by Alec Addalia
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WEBSITE: www.BadRightBreast.com
When you have no symptoms of cancer and a routine mammogram changes your life in a matter of minutes, there’s not much to do but dive right in. Catherine was forced to deal with the unexpected in a matter of minutes, and found support in women who came before her.
Music by Becca Ayers
Graphic Art by Justin West
Website Design by Alec Addalia
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WEBSITE: www.BadRightBreast.com
Mary is a Broadway actor & dancer, as well as a director, choreographer and teacher. Needless to say that she knows her body. So when her doctor continued to dismiss her when she had discovered some not so normal symptoms in her breast, she knew it wasn’t normal and didn’t settle for ‘your scans look fine.’ And because she didn’t settle, she caught her cancer before it spread and became much worse than it was.
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Caryn was a newlywed when she first discovered that she had stage 2 breast cancer. After treatment, which included a double mastectomy and chemotherapy, she was able to have a baby that she and her husband always wanted. Then nine years after she completed treatment, she discovered that her cancer had metastasized. For the past seven years, she is thriving. She created an entire wellness program, Pretty Wellness. She wrote a b...
For nearly 8 years, I had check-ups, mostly blood work, very few scans. But I admit, throughout those years, I sometimes felt a bit invincible. One in eight women get cancer, but 30% of that have a reoccurrence. Finding out my cancer had metastasized to my spine at the height of the pandemic in New York City did not make me feel invincible. It was however a way for me to have yet again a new perspective on life, as if I needed o...
Jennifer is an acupuncturist, mom of two, who had a lumpectomy and then four years later had a reoccurrence and then had a single mastectomy. But her daughter understands it as ‘it’s not the cancer that can kill you like mine almost did.’ We each have our own stories of cancer, and this is Jennifer’s.
Music by Becca Ayers
Graphic Art by Justin West
Website Design by Alec Addalia
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WEBSITE: www....