A Day in the Life with Metastatic Breast Cancer - Episode 13

Well! It feels as though I have been away for an epoch or two, but glad to be back. Since last time, I have been busy, busy, busy with life stuff. I am delighted to report I have moved to a pretty new place, and am settling in nicely. And, yes, the process was just awful, as moving always is. Still, I survived, and on to better things. I have also been happily involved with a local Seattle organization near and dear to my heart, and want to tell you about them, and how I came to know them.

Two years ago, I was, due to a change in my health insurance, forced to leave the original oncologist treating me. Not surprising, this move was wrenching, at first, and left me pretty raw. However, as is so often the case for me, this unwelcome change brought unexpected benefits, and great new people into my life. I have been delighted with the new clinic, and with my new oncologist, whom I have written about before. My amazing new doctor not only encourages me to have hope, but also kicked my well padded tushy into gear to take better care of myself, become stronger, physically, and to get past the terror of the diagnosis. She listened so well in our early visits, recognizing I needed more help that just the medical. She directed her team to work with her social worker on staff to help me find sources of financial aid, as well as to nail down a reliable funder for my wildly expensive cancer meds. Among those financial aid angels was the Northwest Hope and Healing Foundation.

Their mission, as stated, is deceptively simple. Per their website, it reads, “At Northwest Hope & Healing, our mission is to contribute to the healing of those being treated for breast or gynecologic cancer in the Puget Sound region by providing immediate assistance, community, and ongoing survivor support.” Since 2022, I have benefitted from them through a generous gift of grocery store cards. I cannot state more fervently how welcome this has been! As I have noted before in this vlog, the devastation of this disease includes the financial, as well as the physical and psychological. With my income suddenly diminished, things like grocery shopping became pretty scary, and depressing. Having this unexpected largesse from the Foundation has helped so much. And in spring of this year, I started to benefit from them in another unexpected way. 

Last April, my lovely doctor let me know about the Foundation’s annual fundraising event — an auction/fashion show taking place in the summer. As she knows (and shares) my love of fashion, she asked me if I’d be interested in volunteering. I jumped at the opportunity, and was in contact with the executive director right away. Not only have I been working with their amazing staff helping to secure auction items, but I was also asked to serve as one of the models! Now, really, you know me well enough by now, how could I say no to that? 

August 18, 2024, Life in Color, the annual Northwest Hope and Healing Foundation’s annual event takes place. For those of you reading this, here is the website is https://nwhopeandhealing.org/. Just listening? You can find them at nwhopeandhealing.org. If you’re interested, there is still time to lend your support! I’d like to take a moment to also thank those artist friends who have stepped up and graciously donated gorgeous pieces for the auction, and to my women friends who will be attending, and cheering me on. God love you, all.

And speaking of love, a couple of weeks ago I had an opportunity to meet with the foundation staff, board members, past models, and the current models who will be walking the stage with me for this event. It was a lovely affair, held in the showroom of one of the clothing stores providing the fashion we will be modeling. Meeting the board, and staff of the foundation was terrific, but it was meeting, and sharing stories with the other models — breast cancer patients all — that was so remarkable. And so full of joy! And also, tears. 

Perspective, ah, perspective. I’ve not had a fun time with my own battles with this stupid disease, but this meet and greet reminded me how much harder it can be. I met a woman much younger than I with the same diagnosis just trying to hang in and hang on long enough to see her children grow from toddlers to grade schoolers. I also heard stories about devastating, life threatening side effects from the cancer meds; as well as hearing stories of strange and novel cancer symptoms. Everyone had a story, and I was humbled by them all. I also noted the similarities in our tales, as well.

It was darkly funny, and we all wryly laughed, but none of us have the hair and fingernails we once gloried in. The meds designed to squelch our estrogen has left us all with dry, brittle hair, ragged nails, and itchy skin. The only women in attendance with pretty nails admitted they were fake. Of course. And don’t get me started on the tales shared about fatigue; stomach distress, and brain fog. I’ve covered that at length here, but it was interesting to talk about it with other women. And to hear how similar were our tales regarding navigating the every day indignities, pain, distress, and humiliation inherent in the disease. I was pleased to be able to share my stories, and direct them to this vlog. Every one of them, to a woman let me know how having access to this day to day information early on in their diagnosis would have helped them. And now, I have lovely new contacts, and great new sources of information, and advice to share here. In future posts, I will be doing just that. As this has become longer than I expected, I will say good bye for now, and ask only for your good mojo for us in our efforts to raise much needed funding for the Foundation. Oh, and your kind thoughts and hopes are welcome regarding my maintaining my balance navigating the stage in high heeled sandals. Sigh. There is no guarantee I will not tumble into the orchestra pit. But, hey, that could be another story!