Book Description

Most people think breast cancer only affects women and men who have a family history. Stay healthy, eat right, don't smoke, get yearly mammograms. The radiologist tells you you're good until next year. You are all set. Wrong! Breast cancer can affect anyone, any age, any lifestyle. Hidden from view. Like an alien hiding in your chest. Cancer cells put up a barrier around themselves. A disguise, so your body doesn't know it's there. The only way to protect yourself is a good screening. For some of us, we have dense to extremely dense breast tissue which is like looking at a snow globe. Impossible to see anything. We need ultrasounds and MRIs. We need good facilities and good doctors. We need hope. My book, My Pink Diary: A Survival Guide. What Every Woman Should Know, is my personal journey with breast cancer from day one to the present. My words have helped so many women that I know. I wanted to write down all of my experiences and research to help all women. Not just the ones I know. If my words can save women and help them go through breast cancer or procedures with a sense of ease and familiarity, I will feel complete. Every time I hear someone I know or a friend of a friend has breast cancer, I just want to give them my book. Friends ask me all the time if my book is ready so they can give to someone they know who is going through breast cancer. My journey can help so many women on so many levels. Of course, I added in some humor. Because laughter, sometimes, can be one of the best remedies.So starts my journey. The diary describes everything in detail with pictures, charts and research. I walked into every appointment and test blind, frightened and ill informed. Googling everything was foolish and scary. I needed facts. What would I be going through? What can I expect from surgery, chemo and radiation? Every day was a journey. Here it is. Everything you need to know. Even my medication schedule that I had to follow that prevented me from being sick from my endless chemo sessions. I've included every detail of what to expect and many unexpected details I wish I had known prior. Think of my diary as a guide through anyone's journey. What does chemo feel like? Lumpectomy vs Mastectomy? What will happen before and after surgery or when I have biopsies? I wish I had been more prepared. So I wrote this diary to prepare the reader. I was diagnosed with Stage 2B breast cancer in 2015. I had been faithfully going for routine mammograms since I was 39. At age 46, it was the first time in 7 years I was told I had dense breasts. No wonder during my past mammograms the radiologists didn't see anything. They really couldn't see anything. The entire mammogram screen was white! I should have been sent for better testing at age 39. This time, they thought they saw something. "Maybe nothing", they said. After an ultrasound and MRI, they found a large suspicious lump along with 5 other lumps. 6 lumps in my chest, 3 in each breast that had been undetected with the traditional 2D mammogram. Who knows how long they have been in my breasts. Today I am cancer free but live year to year waiting for the results of my MRIs. My journey had to be shared.I have been a graphic designer for over 20 years. I graduated college with a degree in Journalism and a minor in English. I wrote and designed My Diary. Although there are thousands of books on breast cancer, to the best of my knowledge, mine would be the only book in diary form jam-packed with information every woman should know written in an easy to read and understand format without technical jargon. I wanted to write my book as if I was talking to a friend.