Meeting Mets Magic

The weekend of May 1st and 2nd, Richard and I took a trip to Philadelphia for the 4th Annual Metastatic Breast Cancer Conference, organized by a group called Living Beyond Breast Cancer.

I was very lucky that both Richard and I received travel grants to be able to attend this conference. It was an incredible experience to have Richard there with me as I listened to health care professionals, and others, that affect the cancer "trip", as well as meeting some amazing breast cancer warrior women. It was so much better to have him there with me then to try to tell him about things later. He's a great person to bounce my thoughts and fears off of as we were raking in the intended conference information.

There was an overview of the progress being made regarding mets specifically and what to look for in the future. We attended the bone mets workshop and came out with lots of new questions to take back to my doctors. On Sunday, I went to the lung & liver mets workshop while Richard went to the caregiver workshop. We both got something out of each workshop and were glad to have attended for the information.

More important and more exciting though, were the women that we met that weekend. I found that most women had my sick, sarcastic sense of humor, making jokes about cancer that would make the cancer civilian completely uncomfortable. We talked about the same worries and fears and laughed about similar medical stories and misinformation. It was a familiarity that is similar to those old friends everyone has that no matter how much time passes, you can pick right up where you left off and it feels like not a moment has passed. I cherish all of the women that shared a part of themselves and their story with us.

Two amazing women-Tricia and Andrea-rocked our world. We all went to dinner on Saturday night and talked for hours. Tricia was nice enough to drive us to the airport to save us money on Sunday and we loved having the extra time to talk. Andrea and I had a lot in common by way of energy medicine and other experiences, and Tricia was just such a great person to talk to. I love these women! Cancer gives so many shitty gifts but it also brings wonderful people together that would never meet otherwise. So many blessings around the bullshit.

All in all, it was a wonderful conference. It was smaller than the YSC one and had a much shorter schedule, but that's because YSC has been around 10 years and this one was 4. I am hoping that the mets conference keeps growing so it will be jam packed with things to do in the future. Mets women out there unite! If you are feeling good, get out there to that conference!

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Medical update-the Thursday before the conference, had an MRI of my pelvis, spine & neck. Dr. Ramakrishna wants to radiate L4 on the lumbar section of my back. It's not urgent, so we're just going to chill out for now. I'm going to see Dr. Ramakrishna again in 3 weeks for my brain follow-up and we'll talk about it then. I won't bore you with the ridiculosity that was how we were told there was a problem with my lumbar. This is more about the amazing conference we attended. But it is so important to be diligent and do not let some amateur nurse covering for your normal nurse try to give you medical info that they shouldn't. Stand up for yourself and do not accept anything but professionalism from EVERYONE.

Happy Mother's Day to all-especially the amazing doctors and nurses taking care of me! Yay! Thank you for you!