On the Wings of Pink Angels
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About this ebook
You have cancer. These are words people dread hearing. But when worse comes to worst, push comes to shove, something wonderful happens. More people come together for support and encouragement. More people participate in "Race for the Cure" events, and more people discover an inner strength within themselves that they never knew they ha
Dawn Colclasure
Dawn Colclasure is the author of five books, among them BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL: How We Survive as Writing Parents and 365 TIPS FOR WRITERS: Inspiration, Writing Prompts and Beat The Block Tips to Turbo Charge Your Creativity. Her articles, essays, poems, book reviews and short stories have been published in regional and national newspapers and magazines, as well as online. She lives and writes in Oregon with her husband and children.
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On the Wings of Pink Angels - Dawn Colclasure
Contents
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Book Review: Straight Talk About Breast Cancer
Residents of Nebraska Join the Battle Against Breast Cancer
Five Myths and Misconceptions about Breast Cancer
Pink Ribbon Breakfast
Organization spotlight: Ruta Pink
Breast Reconstruction Procedure Reaches New Heights
Teresa’s Family Cleaning: Cleaning For a Reason
Breast Cancer: It’s Not Just a Chick Thing
Dellani Oakes: One-year (and counting!) Breast Cancer Survivor
Memories of Carri Morrison
Short Story: Telling Tatiana
Bibliography
About the Author
On the Wings of Pink Angels
Triumph, Struggle and Courage Against Breast Cancer
Written and Edited by
Dawn Colclasure
All rights reserved
Copyright © April 21, 2012, Dawn Colclasure
Cover Art Copyright © 2012, Charlotte Holley
Gypsy Shadow Publishing, LLC.
Lockhart, TX
www.gypsyshadow.com
No part of this book may be reproduced or shared by any electronic or mechanical means, including but not limited to printing, file sharing, and email, without prior written permission from Gypsy Shadow Publishing, LLC.
ISBN: 978-1-61950-471-4
Published in the United States of America
First eBook Edition: October 31, 2012
Dedication
This book is dedicated to everyone who has fought, and continues to fight, against breast cancer.
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I would like to thank the two very talented and inspiring ladies behind Gypsy Shadow Publishing, Denise Bartlett and Charlotte Holley, for their support
and dedication to this book.
I’d also like to thank Peter Shankman and the HARO team (Help A Reporter Out) for making it possible for me to reach out to so many with first the blog series, then the book.
Thank you to Carolyn Howard-Johnson for spreading the word about this project and taking the time to share her experiences for this book.
Thank you to Elizabeth Burton for encouraging me to read Cheryl Swanson’s inspiring book and thank you to Cheryl herself for having the courage to share her story.
Many thanks to Sue Chehrenegar, Caitlin Varley, Courtney Thomas, Jeff Rinke, Karyn Margolis, Allison Warner, Andrea Samacicia, Michelle Zeigler, Kathy Garfield, Stacey Hirvela, Florence Ivy, Donna Hill, Jenn Greenleaf, Vicky Marshall, Meca McKinney, Julie Gallegos, Valerie Breslow, Maya Patel-Stewart, Brooke Peterson, Saretta Brown, Norma Wolf, Diane Radford MD,FACS,FRCSEd, Nicole Lee, Pamela Haven, Karen Whittier, Stephanie Hackney, Dellani Oakes, Kim Posekany, Diana Hoffman, and Tara Chevrestt. I am so grateful to you all for taking the time and supporting this book.
Thank you to Isa Jennings for accepting the offer for proceeds of this book to go toward supporting Courageous Kids (http://www.courageouskidsoregon.org/).
And I am especially grateful to my husband and children, especially my daughter, Jennifer Wilson, who, despite still being so young, has supported this project and shared her encouragement that one day we will find a cure for all cancers.
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month was founded in 1985 by a variety of health and medical organizations promoting the message of breast cancer awareness.
You can visit the site here: http://www.nbcam.org/
And here is the Wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Breast_Cancer_Awareness_Month
Since its inception, businesses and charities across the globe have stepped up to do their part in the fight against breast cancer. Major corporations such as ValPak, Walmart and Lands’ End have participated in NBCAM in some form or another. They have distributed flyers and informational documents about breast cancer among employees and customers, created support groups to help those with breast cancer and created an in-house breast cancer screening program. Even the government has done its part in participating in NBCAM, by including a message about breast cancer on government employee pay stubs during the month of October.
Over the years, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month has been a month of challenges, inspiration, support—as well as controversy. A local breast imaging center in Eugene, Oregon started a Make Time for the Girls
campaign during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in 2010. The idea of calling breasts the girls
was met with a public outcry, spurring many residents to complain to their local newspaper about such insensitivity. Still, the campaign persevered. Another year when NBCAM rolled around, many people on Facebook shared a status update saying, Let’s find a cure for ALL cancers, not just breast cancer.
The purpose of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month is to promote awareness and support for anyone fighting for their life against breast cancer. Yes, we do want an end to ALL cancers one day, but let us remember that this special month was not created to slight the other cancers, or even to dismiss the struggles of those afflicted with other cancers. Let us march forward with our pink ribbons spreading the message that the fight against breast cancer, and indeed all cancers worldwide, must continue to go strong.
Beating Time At Its Own Game: Life Begins With Cancer
by Carolyn Howard-Johnson
The day after my biopsy, my husband and I drove to Las Vegas on a business trip, never thinking about possibilities. We stopped at the state line for a ride on the giant Ferris wheel. We shelled giant prawns for lunch at the Stardust buffet. We slid quarters into a slot machine—the old fashioned kind I like with spinning cherries that will surely triple my money and spill the winnings into a silver trough.
That was not a bad approach at the time. There is no reason to assume the worst, to project abject possibilities that may never come to pass onto the present. Denial is sometimes very useful. On the other hand, it often keeps one from examining one’s own behavior, one’s own motivations. I share this anecdote because it illustrates how thoroughly denial had become entrenched in my life.
I was raised in times that were not easy for women. Most of the barriers I faced were ones that couldn’t be seen nor acknowledged because I didn’t know they were there. They crept up silently on padded feet and, if I sensed them at all, I chose not to turn and face them.
This faculty for denial was intact and very healthy when I was diagnosed with cancer. By 3 p.m. that day, the picture was not so jolly. We had to return home so I could begin autogenous blood donations. The risk of AIDS in the blood supply was still high; my doctor believed that we should have my own blood on hand in case it was needed.
My first reaction was true to pattern. I reassured myself that everything was going to be just fine, that I wasn’t nervous, that cancer was not a terrifying word. Unfortunately, my doctor had not sounded especially positive when he demanded that we set a surgery date in that moment, over the phone.
My husband was also up to the task. We won’t work today. We’ll just take off, have some fun and drive back tonight.
We were two peas in a pod. We’d both try anything other than just saying, Gee, I’m scared.
I almost went along with that plan. Instead, I used the time on the open road to meditate. In that time, I realized—sort of knew at a cellular level—that I had to do more than donate blood to myself and that cancer doesn’t just happen.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t believe those of us who have it are being punished but I do believe that it follows those of us who haven’t taken care of our own needs. The way we relate to ourselves, more than the way we relate to the world, is a factor in our illness, or for that matter in our health. When I tried to excuse myself out of those thoughts, that was only another indication that I needed to look through the glass in my kaleidoscope one more time—at its fragmentation as well as its beauty—and to make sense of the patterns I saw there.
I began to read. At first I chose books that helped me deal with my fears. My favorite is Love, Medicine and Miracles, by Bernie Siegel, M.D. I also liked some of the practical skills offered by Louise Hayes in her books. I read books on how to deal with grief. Even though most of them explored grief that follows death, the understanding of it and the coming to terms with it are the same whether we are grieving for a lost parent or pet or career or health.
As I began my recovery, I utilized some hatha yoga I had done in my youth and continued with a vitamin regimen (with the permission of my doctor) that I started when I first found little chicken scratches in the skin around my eyes. I used vitamin E oil on my incisions.
You’re healing so quickly,
my doctor said. What are you doing?
Yoga and snake oil.
He just shook his head.
The next step was healing my life. At first my family wasn’t crazy about the changes in me. Families are a bit like mobiles—little works of art that are delicately balanced. I read When I Say No I Feel Guilty by Manuel J. Smith, Ph.D., Mother Daughter Revolution by Elizabeth DeBold, Marie Wilson and Idelisse Malavé, and The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck, M.D.
Therapy was also a good support system