Category: cancer survivor

Posted on

Cancerversary

Hi Team KLB,

Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of the day my whole world changed. I’ve been reliving the emotions that I felt leading up to my biopsy and diagnosis. Lately, I’ve also been thinking about those first few days and weeks post diagnosis and remembering just how hard it was. As of now, I feel slightly numb to how hard it was to process things in the beginning. Sometimes I talk about having Cancer like it was a cold. While I know it was nothing like that, I’m so used to it now, that’s it’s just my new normal.

I kept thinking about this is when “my life got flipped-turned upside down” which is also a small part of the lyrics to the theme song for the “Fresh Prince of Bel Air”. So, to mark this Cancerversary, I rewrote the lyrics to fresh prince to reflect how cancer “flipped-turned upside down” my life (with the help of my favorite musician :).

Here are my new song lyrics:

Queen of Team KLB

 

Now this is a story all about how

My life got flipped-turned up side down

And I’d like to take a minute

Just listen and see

I’ll tell you how I became Queen of Team KLB

 

In Silicon Valley, born and raised

In the classroom was where I spent most of my days,

Schoolin’ out, gradin’, teaching all cool,

Playin’ bralyball outside of school.

 

When a couple of lumps that were up to good,

started making trouble in my neighborhood.

I had one little test and my family got scared,

Dr. said, “You’ve got cancer, but let’s kick it out of here!”

 

Went through Chemo, lost all of my hair

Felt really weak, didn’t like lookin’ in the mirror

Doctors said, “tumor’s shrinkin’, yo’ almost there!”

And in end, I would say I was a survivor!

 

I pulled through surgery and by December 8,

I was remission, I told the cancer “see ya later!”

I looked at my life, CANCER FREE,

I put on my cape as Queen of Team KLB.

 

I hope you were able to sing along in your head and that you enjoyed it!

My hair is growing back and while I’m glad I have it and I’ll take this over no hair ANYDAY, I really hate it. Everyone says, “you’re hair looks great” or “I really love it” and one friend even said that I looked more beautiful with short hair because hair would just take away from the beauty of my face. (While that was a wonderful compliment, I used to have hair for the previous 30 years of my life and I never felt that way.) It’s not that I don’t appreciate the compliments, I truly do appreciate them, but I hate my hair the way it is and I am anxiously waiting for it to return to a more normal length and style. My hair is still my scarlet letter (as far as I’m concerned). It tells me and the world (but mostly me) every morning when I wake up “She had cancer”.

I’m still about three-four months out from my swap surgery. I’ll post more info about it after I talk with the plastic surgeon in July. I’ll be very happy to have real implants. I’ve heard that they are much more comfortable than my current expanders (because these are not comfortable – especially sleeping!).

Thanks for your continued love and support!

<3 Queen of Team KLB

Posted on

Back to work after 8.5 months off…

Hi there #teamklb!

I hope you are all well. I am doing well and feeling well.

I have completed nine of 25 days of radiation so far. I will be finished on March 16th, just two days before my 32nd birthday. I will be very happy to be finished before my birthday. So far, radiation is going well. Not much skin irritation or feelings of exhaustion. (Although I am more tired lately but I’ve been quite busy planning a surprise party for Jim – it was yesterday and boy, was it fucking awesome!- I’ll add more party details here soon) Occasionally, I’ll feel a bit more pain in the area that’s being radiated – the right breast, but it’s pretty infrequent. It is a cumulative process, so I imagine things will start catching up with me soon.

I start work tomorrow! (YIKES!) I’ve had a slough of mixed emotions about it over the past few days, but most of them are positive. I met with my long term sub last week and we discussed the transition back into the classroom. I’ll be working from 8:00-11:30 each day and he’ll be teaching in the afternoon. This will allow me to slowly ease into things and continue my radiation. My radiation appointments are literally less than a quarter mile from my work, so that makes it easy. After that, I’ll have a bit of time to rest in the afternoons. I’m looking forward to getting back into my pre-cancer life.

I hope to bring to the classroom an environment that encourages kids to take care of one another and focus on compassion and support for each other. As a kid, I remember thinking that it was really important to be smart (THE most important thing, in fact). My Uncle Bob and I had a conversation about which Disney character was better, I said Mickey because he was smart, while he thought Goofy because he was nice. I very vividly remember this conversation, sitting on the davenport (any non-Essenmachers know what that is? The sofa!) in my grandparents living room. This conversation has always stayed with me, and until becoming a teacher, my answer remained the same. But I now know that being kind is a much more important character trait. From my experience, you can’t teach adults to be nice, but you can teach them new things. All of that to say, my classroom will be one that fosters kindness, caring, and support for all students. This is not to say that I never cared about fostering these things before, it has always been important to me, but it is so hard with all the standards and all the students to always make it a priority. But we only get one life, and I want to make sure that my influence on the students is through a learning environment that supports kindness, caring, and support. Although, I will really miss hanging out with the Roxbury dog pack everyday.

Many of you know that the BRCA1 genetic mutation that I have also increases my risk for Melanoma, the deadliest of skin cancers. (Thanks to the doctors office pamphlet for that little tidbit of fear-inducing information.) I had my annual mole check the second week of February and the doctor decided she wanted to biopsy a mole on my back just in case. Those four days of waiting we’re pretty tough. Jim says he knew it would be fine, but I no longer feel that way about any test results. Luckily, it did come back negative and we’re all good.

The PSA for the day is that you should be doing mole self checks (for me she suggested monthly) and be going to get your skin checked by your doctor as needed. I’ve said this many times during my cancer treatment, but cancer has taught me that life is for living. Not to put things off or think, maybe next year I’ll do that thing that’s I’ve always wanted to do. Nobody has the luxury of time, none of us know our futures. If you want something important in your life, make it happen.

Thanks for your continued love and support! I’ll continue keeping you updated. Lots of love!

Xoxo,

Katie

Posted on

6/17/14

TeamKLB

We had our chemo class today and learned all about side effects, etc. My first chemo is scheduled for tomorrow from 10:30-1:30. Feel free to send out cancer killing vibes during those hours :). Chemo will be every three weeks. I expect to feel okay for the first few days after chemo and then blech on days 4-5 afterwards. The second full week I’m also not supposed to be feeling well because my blood counts will be down. Week three I should feel decent again and then it starts all over. My hair should fall out around day 21. I have plans to shave it and get a wig/scarf. Thank you all for your offers of support thus far. It makes this journey easier. I’ll keep you updated here as I know more.

xoxo <3,

Katie

Posted on

6/14/14

TeamKLB

The MRI came back last week and showed that the left breast was clear. Good news. They found a second tumor in the right breast – 8.5 cm. The first tumor measured 3.5 cm. The first tumor is classified as invasive ductal carcinoma and this newly discovered tumor is classified as ductal carcinoma in situ. Basically the second tumor is contained within the duct and the first tumor is invading the surrounding tissue. There was also a suspicious lymph node. The surgeon expressed concern to possibly biopsy the lymph node first which would delay chemo by up to 2 weeks. This was a concern of mine and after presenting my case to the tumor board the surgeon called tell me that the tumor board unanimously agreed to start chemo because of the aggressive nature of the cancer.

I have chemo class scheduled for Tuesday and I’m hoping to start chemo ASAP after that.

Thanks for all of your texts, calls, emails, messages, flowers, etc. I am doing okay. This is scary and effed up but I’ve got a positive attitude and the BEST support network out there.

<3,

Katie