Dealing with a Breast Cancer Diagnosis

It's been 10 days since I was diagnosed with invasive and advanced stage breast cancer. I could share a hundred cliche anecdotes about how it's been a rollercoaster, but the truth is I'm not going to focus on literary excellence here, I just want to get it all down.

My aim is to firstly get things out of my head, to make sense of all the things that I've been learning (or unlearning..) and writing has always been my way of doing that.

A second goal is to make sure I don't waste this opportunity to grow. It is a fact that my career will grind to a halt and that I won't be capable of so much, during treatment. This 'blogging' will give me a sense of accomplishment, that has helped me much in the past.

And if I'm lucky and have enough energy to be consistent with this, it would be a gift to be able to inspire others that may be on a similar journey or just want to follow along.

I'll keep things short, simple (my engineering brain requires this of every specialist I've seen so far) and as much as I can, humorous or at the very least 'pythonesque'.

Where I have photos, I'll share them.

If there's frequently asked questions, I'll post them.

Any good resources I've found. I'll provide them.

As many people warned me, one of the hardest and most exhausting things so far has been recounting information back to people at the end of these long, hard days. So, this place will serve as a place for those that want it and a way to shield info from the rest.

With all the love & energy I can muster.

Em