Happy Birthday to Me (and Jill)!

Today is my 52nd birthday, a day I did not think I would live to see. When my breast cancer moved into my bones five years ago, the odds of my living this long were small.

With new treatments, women like me with metastatic breast cancer are living longer, but still, fewer than half of us survive five years from the time of the metastasis.

So, I celebrate getting older.

Last night I went to a women's bathhouse with a close friend for a body scrub and soak (a side note: I have yet to see another one-breasted woman at the bathhouse--where are they hiding?). Tonight, I'll have a birthday dinner at home with my sons and close friends.

And yesterday's lunch, with my friend Jill Cohen, was a celebration of our survival. Jill, who also blogs about life and cancer, or life with cancer, turned 47 on November 15. I turned 52 today. And for the past two years we have had lunch together on the day between our birthdays. Jill understands better than anyone what each birthday means to me.

We plan to continue the tradition for many more years.

Read Jill's blog at http://jillscancerjourney.blogspot.com/

Comments

[Lynne Dahlborg]

Happy Birthday to you indeed! Sounds like a great way to celebrate. I just found your blog throught the link on Sharing our Days, and I want to thank you for speaking up as an "assertive cancer patient." I have gallbladder cancer, not breast cancer, so I am in a different group. My cancer is rare, generally aggressive and with a poor prognosis. As few as 3,000 new cases may be diagnosed this year, and many die within 6 months of diagnosis. But, my point in writing is to say that I recognize the commonalities in the challenges of dealing with the medical community, people with answers for our treatment, those who mean well, and other aspects of living with this disease. So, thanks for speaking up!