Another great week, and feeling pretty good. I'm having a surgical procedure today to remove my deflated implant. I will be awake for it so I won't need to stay in the hospital or anything. I had a great father's day with Patrick yesterday, we went golfing at the Amana golf course, we played best ball so our score was actually not too terrible for only my third time golfing. I even managed on the last hole to get it in the whole from 30 yards with the putter. I was so excited. Due to the Xeloda, I needed to wear golfing gloves or else my hands would have been torn to shreds.

Although I am very optimistic and hopeful for a "home-run", I feel like some people don't understand just how deadly cancer at this stage is. I hate to admit this, but the longest my doctor has seen someone with my stage of disease live is only 7 years. I don't want to be cruel to all my friends and family out there, but I also want to prepare you all. Statistically speaking at this stage, the median survival is only 2 years. This is just the median, and there is a long tail of people who have lived 20 or more years with the disease. I am already taking drugs that can immediately have severe cardiac complications as well as numerous unknown long term side effects from use.

Its still so odd to me, considering I actually wanted to study cancer, and contribute to the scientific community. I really found cancer a important area of study, but never thought my life would depend on it. I feel so fortunate to be alive today, because had I not started chemo when I did (the first time in August 2010)or had it not responded to my therapy, I'd probably already be dead. My tumor was huge then almost the size of a lemon, and still my doctor was telling me that it was probably from nursing Parker. As a favor to me, please if you notice something in your breasts- that is not present in the other breast- get a biopsy. Screw statistics, screw doctor's advice, pay for it now if insurance won't cover it. Don't trust mammograms or ultrasounds- they don't work in young women, our breast tissue is too dense. Be especially aggressive if there are calcifications on mammo, don't wait.

The following video I got from a friend, she's the first gal on the video, and it really hit home for me. She's lived with stage 4 for 4 years now, and she like me, has a young son.

Paste into your browser, then click in the open space on the screen to view;

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=9b632b1fc19fcaeee313a4&skin_id=1901&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url