Flashback to December 2014 with me to see how “My Warrior Mommy: Our Breast Cancer Journey” came to be a needed resource for families going through breast cancer treatment and read how YOU can help spread “My Warrior Mommy: Our Breast Cancer Journey” throughout the country.
December 2014
I had just turned 40 and my boys were in second grade, kindergarten, and preschool. I had doctors appointments for a breast biopsy and an ultrasound after discovering a lump in my breast. With winter break a day away, I got the call from my doctor informing me that I had breast cancer. It was a call that made my world stand still. With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, I felt frozen in place. But being still was not an option as I had three young boys. My first thoughts went to my boys. How am I going to tell them? What will I tell them? What will my prognosis be? And the unthinkable and unanswerable question was lurking, will this cancer take my life? After being diagnosed, I filled the time with lots of people, activities, and noise as not to be alone in my thoughts. Then on Christmas Eve I received the best Christmas present at my initial breast surgeon doctors appointment, my prognosis was good and my cancer treatable. My treatment plan was outlined. My surgery would come first (a bilateral mastectomy, axillary node dissection, and breast reconstruction), followed by chemotherapy, and finally radiation. But the unanswered question remained, how do I tell my children? What resources were available? I found out there was a social worker who would call me with recommendations and guiding words to help me share my prognosis with my children, but when would they call? Would I be at work when I got the call? I just found out and my employer did not know. Would I be with my children when I got the call from the social worker? This would be a challenging conversation to have in their presence. There was a breast cancer library but being newly diagnosed, it was hard enough going into the breast center. Walking through the doorway of the the breast cancer library was not an identify I was ready to acknowledge. So I left my doctors appointment as a newly diagnosed breast cancer patient with my treatment but with no way to share this news with my children.
How many other women face this same situation? Doctors create a medical treatment plan for the cancer, but what about the family plan to help alleviate the stress of sharing a new breast cancer diagnosis with children?
Throughout my treatment I wrote “My Warrior Mommy: Our Breast Cancer Journey” to provide families with a resource to open the conversation with their children to help explain their breast cancer diagnosis through a picture book. Parents use picture books with their children from birth so sharing their medical diagnosis of breast cancer through a picture book would be a natural way to support parents and their children.
Using books to help with healing is bibliotherapy and “My Warrior Mommy: Our Breast Cancer Journey” can help with the family plan of sharing mommy’s diagnosis. “My Warrior Mommy: Our Breast Cancer Journey” can help demystify medical vocabulary through beautiful illustrations and provide children with a loving journey through breast cancer treatment.
My vision is that one day “My Warrior Mommy: Our Breast Cancer Journey” will be part of new patient information. Until then, it is my hope that nurse navigators and social workers can reference “My Warrior Mommy: Our Breast Cancer Journey” as a resource for parents to start the conversation with their children.
Fast Forward to the present. To celebrate my five year anniversary and to support newly diagnosed families, 3 SONS PRESS will be sending out a copy of “My Warrior Mommy: Our Breast Cancer Journey” to three to five hospitals in every state. The first shipment will be on February 5, 2020 and will continue every week until September 28, 2020. Those dates mark my surgery and my last radiation treatment.
Help me spread “My Warrior Mommy: Our Brest Cancer Journey” to hospitals throughout the country. Reply to this message with names of breast centers across the country that you would like to see this book as part of their new patient information.
Please forward this message to friends and family across the county so I can get your input and send the book to breast centers across the country that have cared for you and your loved ones.
Thank you for positively supporting newly diagnosed families across the country as they have to balance the everyday with the daunting challenge of sharing their new medical diagnosis with their beloved.
Beginning February 5, 2020 and then weekly, I will update this blog with the hospitals getting copies of My Warrior Mommy: Our Breast Cancer Journey” as part of “Books of Hope” initiative.