October 3, 2017

Oh J,

I'm so sorry to hear this news. My best advice is not to be shy to ask questions if you are not sure of anything, be kind and patient to yourself, ask for help (especially with cooking and the kids), and find some good tv to watch. Something else that helped me was to take one step at a time, have someone come to my appointments with me to take notes so I could look back at them later. I also made a lot of deals with myself. "If you can get through this without ...., then you can buy yourself a new couch." Silly things like that. PATIENCE is so important since you end up having to wait for labs, appointments, etc. I don't know what health care is like over there but I have probably been to over 100 appointments in the last 2 years. It is a lot of one step at a time. Let me know if you want any of my opinions on reconstruction. I will be thinking about you Monday and hoping that they take those stupid lumps out, there's nothing else and you can go home and rest.

xxo, A

PS I'm pretty ok now. I think the biggest thing that lingers is managing how much all the surgeries and medication aged me and still going to so many appointments. But I am cancer free, almost off all western meds, and headed to a retreat in December to hopefully get rid of anything remaining, physically and emotionally