Saturday, April 23, 2011

Organic skincare...from South Africa - now available in U.S.

Jenny Peters (sister of freshman roommate Gretchen) started an amazing line of organic skincare with South African natural products (I love the stuff - full of omega-3s). This is her website: http://www.savaneskin.co.za/ and now it is available to buy in the U.S. http://www.zaega.com/. Check it out!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

And this will make you stop and think...

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/a-couples-knot-tied-tighter-by-dual-diagnoses/

If it makes you happy...

http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/music/2011/04/12/17960176-wenn-story.html

Sheryl Crow has a new cookbook with the personal chef who got her through breast cancer and its aftermath.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Free House Cleaning for Chemo Patients...Pass it on

Subject: Chemo - FREE housecleaning

Cleaning for a Reason
If you know any woman currently undergoing chemotherapy, please pass the word to her that there is a cleaning service that provides FREE housecleaning - once per month for 4 months while she is in treatment. All she has to do is sign up and have her doctor fax a note confirming the treatment. Cleaning for a Reason will have a participating maid service in her zip code area arrange for the service. This organization serves the entire USA and currently has 547 partners to help these women. It's our job to pass the word and let them know that there are people out there that care.
Be a blessing to someone and pass this information along.

http://www.cleaningforareason.org/Great information. You may not know someone going through chemo, but someone on your email list might. Please forward!
A true friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart

Snopes verified: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/cleaning.asp

Women's Work

This is a note from Shawn Turner who used to work in the press office here at the Pentagon and is now at the White House...read on.

Hey Team,

Hopefully most of you have heard by now that Monique and I are the proud parents of a new baby girl. Macy Teresa Turner came roaring into the world in a rather dramatic fashion early this morning around 6:35 a.m. It was such an unbelievable delivery that I thought I would share the highlights with you.

Monique woke up around 5:15 telling me that she thought it was time. The last time she said those words to me, I sat at the hospital for 14 hours waiting for our first daughter to be born. As a result, I was a bit skeptical this time and it's fair to say that initially, I was not in much of a hurry.

Around 5:25 I realized that I was not going to be allowed to go back to sleep, so I got up and woke up my daughter Maya. Maya and I often play a game where I get down on all fours and growl and roar as I crawl around pretending to be a lion. She tries to tame the lion by jumping on his back. When Maya saw Mommy down on all fours writhing and moaning from another contraction, she thought it was "tame the lion" time and tried to climb on mommy's back. WOW! --That did not go over well.

I grabbed Maya and said "why don't we get some milk and get dressed so we can go to daycare." Monique overheard this and let's just say the expletives began to fly. Most of it was incoherent but I was able to make out "idiot" "Sasquatch" and "in the car now"

Realizing that this may be more serious than I had previously thought, I decided to move things along. I put Maya and Monique in the car and set off for the daycare which is only a mile from our house. As we made the short trip, Monique was between contractions so I attempted to lighten the mood with a bit of witty banter. She always says she can't do anything in the morning before she has a cup of coffee, so I asked her if she thought we had time to run by the Starbucks on the corner for a couple of Caramel Macchiatos?

I chuckled, Maya yelled "I want some poppy" and Monique looked at me as I were the devil himself.

After I ran Maya into her daycare provider and got back to the car, things had changed. Monique was yelling "we're not going to make it, we're not going to make it" and based on the volume of the screams and the changing shape of her stomach, I started to think she might be right. It was about 6:15 and I drove fast, -- I drove faster than I've ever driven before.

By 6:25 we were approaching the gate at Ft. Belvior. I glanced over to the passenger seat and I could see that Macy was on her way into the world. I'm not sure what happen next but I think I screamed because I remember Monique yelling "Why are you screaming, I'm the one having the baby!"

As I approached the gate, I was honking the horn and yelling to the guards "the baby is coming out, the baby coming out". The male guard put up his hand to slow us down and check things out, the female guard told him to get the hell out of the way and started screaming "go, go, go."

By the time we pulled up in front of the emergency room, Macy was out.

In a stroke of luck, a woman in scrubs was walking by and I yelled to ask her if she was a nurse. To my surprise, she said "I'm a labor and delivery nurse". Monique and I both yelled "PERFECT!"

Mommy and Baby are well and I'm getting a new car.

Best,
Shawn

Monday, April 4, 2011

Studio B - Under Fire on the Lebanon Border

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/shepard-smith/index.html#/v/4617304/there-are-going-to-be-problems/?playlist_id=86931

After the After Show on Fox and Friends April 1

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/fox-friends/index.html#/v/4620228/after-the-show-show-this-burning-land/?playlist_id=163195

How cute is Greg? We are finally able to breath. Couldn't do it - even after we were told the cancer was gone. This is our victory lap! And boy what a few years it has been. We were waiting to exhale...now we can take a deep breath (ok no more breathing analogies, promise!) But just to say, we are having a lot of fun right now.
Tomorrow marks exactly one year since my double mastectomy!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

News you can use if you have Triple Negative - new research to ask about

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-04-drug-combination-aggressive-triple-negative-breast.html

This was shared with me by another Triple Negative sister...worth looking into.

Fox and Friends...This Burning Land


http://www.clicker.com/tv/fox-friends/jennifer-griffin-s-lessons-from-frontlines-1596005/

On phone with Geraldo from Libya...Another burning land



Brian Kilmeade had us on his radio show to talk about "This Burning Land," our new book, and guess who called in from Benghazi?

http://johnnydollar.us/audio/jenandgeraldo.mp3

Alcohol and Breast Cancer...Just Say No

http://ww5.komen.org/Content.aspx?id=6442453108&ecid=emklapr11:5

Full disclosure. In high school and college I drank a lot. Lots of beer and wine. Lots of parties. These are particularly risky years because girls' breasts are developing and teens and young adults binge drink today more than ever before. I was one of them. I now don't drink at all. I miss a little wine, trust me. But I have not really had a drink since being diagnosed on September 28, 2009. Giving it up was easy during chemo because your mouth has that metallic taste. And once it was clear of my system and I was drinking tons of water and eating good whole foods, frankly whenever I have had a sip since it just doesn't do it for me. In fact, it just slows me down and makes me feel sluggish and full of toxins. If you have teenage girls explain to them that drinking could lead to breast cancer (see above statistics) and if you have been diagnosed and want to stay in remission, don't drink. It's that simple. Trust me, no one enjoyed wine and champagne more than me but I really don't miss it one bit. I drink bubbly water with a splash of cranberry and a lime when I am out and frankly if you put it in a wine glass it is really a great cocktail party alternative. Just say no!