2019: Job offer Friday. Accepted Saturday. Diagnosed with breast cancer Monday. Fired by my new employer, the most elite private school in Minneapolis/Hopkins, when I told them about my diagnosis two weeks later. Now I faced losing my insurance and my income, in addition to losing my breasts and maybe my life.
2022: 3 years of surgeries, chemotherapy, collateral damage. Decades ago my husband once described me as "tenacious like a weed." I wondered if that was a compliment; now I know -- it is. I'm slated for a hysterectomy due to cancer medications in the first week of November 2022...
Doctors told me my cancer was caused by “thousands of little impacts.”
Harvard recently reported a dramatic rise in cancers diagnosed before 50 years old, becoming increasingly common with each generation. 
When is enough enough?

Watch 3 years of hair regrowth after chemotherapy 2019-2022 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHb_1GlbFCU&t=1s

Does this story resonate for you? Please share it!

Tenacious Like a Weed: The Story

That moment that you disappear as surgery is about to begin...total surrender. I had a hysterectomy 9 hours ago. 

Is this philosophical storytelling influenced by surgery drugs? Probably...

Yet this exploration of surrender is filled with passion and personal stories beginning on today's surgery table and ending with a real beginning -- all of us surrendering to transform our world's complex challenges and reconnect with each other with fresh joy and fertile imaginations and minds. 

If you like this story, please share it! 

If you know a breast cancer survivor, hug them and know that they are exceptionally courageous and resilient. The sisterhood that no one wants to be a member of. 💜

In your family and community, slow down and listen. Understand others' lives a little more, and stop telling the same story you always repeat in your head about issues or people. Listen to learn from a place of curiosity rather than listening to convince, justify, explain, debate, or fix. Learn more about slowing down when times are urgent from Bayo Akomolafe https://www.bayoakomolafe.net/post/the-times-are-urgent-lets-slow-down. 
More about shifting the inner place from which we operate by Otto Scharmer https://helio-borges.medium.com/facing-disruption-with-theory-u-5467bf204c30

#thisamericanlife #themoth
Thanks for listening!

Making the path by walking together in this complex world - SURRENDER

A student podcast on English Language Learners at school

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It was that kind of week — when you accidentally end up with two boxes of tissues beside your bed. The first story in my journey from being diagnosed with to hopefully surviving breast cancer. Begins June 3, 2019.

1 On Monday

The second episode of my journey through a breast cancer diagnosis. Fear, uncertainty, and structural inequality.

2 Structural Inequality

I've journeyed through discoveries of new information and new pathways in my cancer journey. During the week of June 10, 2019, I thought I had clarity about the pathway ahead. Stay tuned for my next post to discover the temporary nature of this reassuring clarity!

Illusory Sense of Certainty - June 10, 2019

What else can you do but smile once you've come to terms with your cancer diagnosis? I’ve already shed enough tears. Now it’s time to experience the journey in a world I never meant or wanted to be in — joining a sisterhood I never wanted to be a part of. I will emerge from this new world and its lessons and the amazing people along the way with joy and sorrow; I’m sure of it!

Listen here to understand the complexities of navigating test results, a new job offer and the rescinding of that offer, my struggle to arrange insurance coverage, and the humanity that keeps this cancer journey bearable. 

Six cycles of intensive chemotherapy began on July 3, three weeks apart before surgery in November or December. After those 18 weeks, I'll continue with two chemo drugs that specifically target cancer cells every three weeks for the rest of the year. Wish me luck and stay tuned for further thoughts on the journey!

Surrender ~ breast cancer and its accompanying demanding and unpredictable journey

Get ready to laugh and nearly cry! When she was a new reader, my older daughter Chloe recorded herself narrating Dr. Seuss' One Fish Two Fish as a birthday present for my younger daughter Greta. You can hear little Greta trying to "read" along as Chloe narrates. Both are adorable! Worth a listen!

MelaniePN

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