Discussing Breast Cancer

I’ve been tagged to participate in a meme … to share seven random facts about myself with all of you. Since we are discussing breast cancer here, they’ll be randomly related to breast cancer as well:

1. We adopted our third child after my first treatment for breast cancer. My oncologist told me that she wouldn’t prescribe Tamoxifen for me if we wanted more biological children b/c it could cause fetal harm if we were to conceive. But my husband and I were already sure in our hearts that if our family were to grow at that point in time it would be through the miracle of adoption.
2. I was on birth control pills for a long time. I often wondered if they didn’t have something to do with my cancer. Particularly because I had switched to the patch the month before my first mammogram; you should have seen how quickly I ripped that cancer feeding square off my body when I was diagnosed and how messed up I was when I found out my cancer was estrogen receptive! (FYI, the research says, no, that wasn’t what caused my cancer.)
3. I’m Catholic … and felt so blessed to go into my double mastectomy because I knew that at the moment I was being cut opened, a large group of women were gathered at my church, hosting a rosary service for me. Talk about a powerful prayer experience — and I wasn’t even there.
4. I sent 71 thank you notes out after my recovery last summer … to the people that cooked for, cared for, and shopped for my family. 71. Can you stand it? I didn’t know that I knew 71 people in this community!
5. I’m a Saturday night. See, I’m a HUGE Bon Jovi fan. Bon Jovi songs got me through my daily trips to Yale for treatment in 2003. I can still hear his voice urging me on as I drove … “hey, man, I’m alive, I’m taking each day and night at a time. I’m feeling like a Monday but someday I’ll be a Saturday night!”
6. I’m a writer but I wasn’t going to write about my illness (too emotionally painful to even write about) until a friend of mine gave me a beautiful journal — like a travel journal. A travel journal. For my journey. How smart was that of him? Talk about an intervention!
7. Last but not least … and of course the most personal, reserved only for those that are still reading … I have no nipples (and no intention of getting nipples in the near future). At this point in time, my children have missed me through too many surgeries and I won’t leave them for a single elective surgery at this point.

Those are my facts … what are yours?

The rules:
If you are tagged, you need to start by posting 7 random facts about yourself on your blog. Then list these rules and tag 7 others people (figuratively, obviously). List their names on your blog with a link to get your readers there. Then comment for each of the tagged, letting them know they have been tagged. Get i

I tag these survivors:

Jayne
Courtney
Jacki
Jeannette
Angi
Marjory
Janelle