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I agree with Sara. June 12, 2013 was my 1 yr anniversary of my bilateral mastectomy. I remember the day of my ultrasound like it was yesterday and the sound of Dr Brook's voice telling me that she was 99% sure we were looking at breast cancer. I even argued that it couldn't be because there was no history in my family. I was totally freaked out and even more so when the biopsy results from the three tumors came back. I had donated to breast cancer charities, especially Komen, and bought so many items over the years and paid higher prices just because of the pink ribbons to support "the cause." As a woman, I always imagined how awful it must be to have breast cancer. Let me just say, I found out that it is worse than the "awful" I had imagined. After I left the breast center that day with a 99% chance I would need to have a mastectomy, I didn't know what to do next so I just sat in my car in the parking lot with the last half hour replaying over and over in my head. Was it really no big deal? Was I supposed to laugh about it and be happy I didn't have to pay for a boob job? Maybe with all the pink ribbon awareness and funding for research, breast cancer wasn't really like I had imagined. I really had no idea. If my female radiologist made a joke out of my pre-biopsy diagnosis, it must not be as bad as it used to be or what I had thought, right? Did she see me starting to panic and then decide to downplay breast cancer? "Honey, these days insurance pays for everything so you should just go ahead and have a double mastectomy, get yourself a brand new pair of boobs, exactly the way you want them, custom ordered! Girl, your insurance is going to pay for you to get what a whole lot of women have to pay for out of their own pockets...Ha ha!" Fast forward to a week or so later when I reached out to my local Susan G. Komen office in between getting the biopsy test results and my appointment to consult with an oncology breast surgeon. I wanted to find other women like me. I needed to talk to a live person or people. I wanted to find a support group. However, when I identified myself as recently being diagnosed and that I was looking for resources available to me, information, support, etc, she interrupted and said they only did fundraising. She said she really didn't know what to tell me since she was the only one in the office at the time but maybe I could try calling the Church Health Center. I looked up the number and called them. I was transferred several times and then told that since I was not looking for financial support for medical care, she didn't know what to tell me except maybe the Komen office could refer me to a support group. When I told her that Komen referred me to them, she suggested I look on the Internet or wait until my appointment to talk with my doctor. Please do not misunderstand me. I am grateful for being alive because of the research and medical technology, and also grateful for my new, partially reconstructed uneven breasts that have no feeling but do have battle scars all the way across both breasts and it is a reminder everyday when I shower... I didn't mean to get into all that but a year later with the bilateral mastectomy behind me, 6 rounds of chemo behind me, reconstruction partially finished, and anxiety with me at all times, it would be nice as a survivor and pink charitable donor to see and recognize exactly how the pink ribbon dollars donated helps breast cancer patients...? By the way, I just found a support group that starts next Monday but it is not specific to breast cancer; it is for women facing or who have faced any type of cancer. I'm not sure why I felt the need to write but I'm sure it was therapy for me, and I need all the therapy I can get, that's for sure. Thanks for reading and for the therapy. :-)

One great place to look, is foriegners that own restaurants, they mix deer meat with their food.--all the time