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Part 5 – Foam, Facts, and WTF Moments
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This is 6 part series about my breast cancer and reconstruction surgeries—some real talk, a bit of education, and most importantly some humor. A grab bag of breast cancer fun facts, pro tips, and the beauty of awkward honesty. Sitting on your drain tubes (or dropping them) doesn’t feel awesome.…
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Part 2 – Tap Out: Life with Drains
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This is 6 part series about my breast cancer and reconstruction surgeries—some real talk, a bit of education, and most importantly some humor. Drain drama, shower fails, and the grudging appreciation for the tubes that kept me infection-free. I complained about my drains every single day for the three weeks…
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Part 1 – The First Pour: Bilateral Nipple-Sparing Mastectomy
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This is 6 part series about my breast cancer and reconstruction surgeries—some real talk, a bit of education, and most importantly some humor. The first surgery, the shock, the drains, and the moment I met my new body. There’s no way to fully prepare for what to expect. A thousand…
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The Power of Falling Apart
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It started with my heart racing—no, sprinting. My breath turned shallow, my hands shook, my thoughts blurred. I heard words but couldn’t understand them. My mouth moved, but nothing came out. I was trapped inside my own body, unable to make sense of what was happening. No matter how much…
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The Silver Lining of (the City of) Hope
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Moving across the country is stressful under the best of circumstances. Doing it in the midst of a cancer diagnosis and a life-changing genetic discovery? Overwhelming doesn’t even begin to cover it. When my family relocated from North Carolina to San Diego, I had no idea just how much this…
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Medical Specialist Speed Dating
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Being diagnosed with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome means re-entering the dating world – sort of. My medical tour around San Diego has evolved from a search for an oncology team to specialist speed dating, where finding the one(s) is less about romance and more about survival. It’s a whirlwind of rapid-fire Q&A,…
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Li-Fraumeni Syndrome & Me
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When I found out I had a TP53 mutation, I had no idea what it meant. TP53? Never heard of it. Li-Fraumeni Syndrome? Li – what? I didn’t know what it was, but the words ‘high cancer risk’ hit me like a slap. It felt like the floor had been…
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Detour to (another) Diagnosis: Finding Out I Have a TP53 Mutation
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When you’re juggling flights, medical appointments and the realization that your body has some seriously unique coding errors, life gets…complicated. Case in point: my whirlwind trip from Orlando to Raleigh, squeezed in between the girls’ week at SeaWorld camp, for my next scheduled breast MRI. I found a last-minute flight,…