Guest post by Sonya McConnon I was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer just after my 40th birthday in August 2021 following my routine mammogram. From the moment of my diagnosis, I wanted to go flat. My surgeon, however, had different ideas. As I had a family history of breast cancer, I was screened yearly …
Breast Cancer
Shannen Doherty Never Let Her Breast Cancer Diagnosis Get in the Way of Living
Shannen Doherty has died. The actress, best known for her work on 90210 and Charmed, was first diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer in 2015. She experienced a recurrence in 2019, and in 2020 announced she was Stage 4, with the cancer spreading to her bones, then, this year to her brain. What I loved …
Breast Cancer Doctors I Follow, Respect and Admire
The breast cancer journey is complicated and emotionally fraught. It thrusts you into a new and terrifying world you never considered, let alone thought would happen to you. This is completely foreign territory — including the terminology your breast cancer doctors are using. It’s hard to think and process what you are being told, let alone …
Exploring the Concept of Post-Traumatic Growth
Just like the progression through stages of grief. Everyone’s response to trauma is different. Some remain stuck, and struggle to move on. Others use that trauma as a catalyst for change. For the latter, it’s not called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but rather, post-traumatic stress growth (PTSG). The phenomenon of PTSG was identified by psychologists …
Why Media Depiction of Breast Cancer Gives Me Pause
A woman with breast cancer. What picture do you conjure up in your head? If you are an advertiser or content creator that buys into the media depiction of breast cancer, she is probably depicted as weak, pale, harnessed to an IV pole and wearing a scarf on her head. She’ll definitely be wearing pink. …