Where are you all from?

Hi Sue. What a great idea! I'm 50 and live in Ossining, NY, 30 miles north of NYC. I'm a physical therapist in a nursing home.I have a beautiful 16 year old daughter Kristen. We're starting the college hunt process. She's interested in looking in Boston area. My husband is Paul and works as a Director of Francsise Operations for a resturant chain. He travels every week to many far off places so life gets pretty lonely here. Hope to hear from more people. HUGS!!! Cathy

My name is Laverne, I am from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I am 37 years old and have two great kids, Marvin 10 & Alyson 8. My husband is an epileptic and has grand mal seizures, his name is Bill. The year before my diagnosis, Bill had brain surgery to remove some of the damaged tissue that was causing his seizures. He was seizure free for almost a year, then I was diagnosed. I had a lumpectomy with 14 nodes removed. Of the 14 nodes 13 were cancerous, my tumor was 3 cm. I had 8 months of chemo and six very horrible weeks of radiation. I completed my treatments in July 2001 and have had severe breast and arm swelling every since. I am currently on Tamoxifen and blood pressure medicine. I have found my cancer journey to be both interesting and very frightening. Interesting because it is amazing how much a body can endure and frightening because of the constant threat of "it's" return. Thru this whole thing I have found this site to be a constant source of inspiration and information. God bless us all and in our own way, we are all living proof that "GOD IS GOOD"!!!!! love, laverne
p.s. this was a great idea, so many times you see the sign in names but never know enough about the person.
hugs to you all!!!!!

Hi - Yes, I also believe that this is a very good idea - maybe we are all closer than we even realize. Of course, it sure would be nice if we could all just get together somewhere sometime, but that is probably too much to ask for. Anyhow, I am 58, and a retired bank secretary and live in Montgomery, Pa. which is in central Pennsylvania close to Williamsport, home of Little League Baseball. My husband and I both retired in January, 1998. We have 4 children and 4 grandchildren. Our grandchildren are all in Maryland, so we chat quite often back and forth on the computer. We are now down in Palm Bay, Florida for our winter vacation and really enjoying ourselves. My breast cancer came in May, 2000 - and I am doing very well now. The hardest part for me now, is the worry about recurrance. Somedays I don't think about it, but most days it is like haunting me. I thank God that I am still here, and hope to be able to fulfill his plans for my future.
God Bless you all. Love, Lucy

Hi I am PAm. As many of you know (I have been on this site for 18 months now) I am from Auckland, New Zealand in the lovely South Pacific. It is still warm & sunny here despite being the end of our summer. I was diagnosed with BC in 1984 & had no follow up after radical mastectomy. I was DX with stage 4 lung & bone mets in 1999. I have been on treatments since then with Tamoxifen, Megastat, Femara & Adriamycin. All failed. Currently on # 4 of 6 Taxotere. So far it seems to be working. Lung mets have cleared & bone mets are shrinking. Tumour markers were down by half at last check up. On Aredia for bone pain which also sdeems to be helping. We are a diverse lot with many stories & sharing them is part of the cure I beleive. Our support of each other is a major success in our cures. I love talking to you all as there is so little support network here in NZ.
Love & hugs & let's kick some cancer butt.
Pam.

Hi! I am Margaret Nelson and I am 33 years old. I live in Petal, Mississippi. I have 2 children, age 10 and 2. I am a Childcare Director. I love working with children. I was diagnosed with infilitaring ductal carcinoma in Aug. 1999. I have been thru with my treatments, since March 2000.I have a wonderful husband of 13 years. In my spare time I enjoy watching my 10 year old play baseball and playing tea-set with my little girl. We enjoy going to the coast in the summer time and taking the boat out to the islands and going red snapper fishing!! Love to all, Margaret(Maggie)

Hi, I'm Jayne. I live in a little town in northern Los Angeles County in California. It's real close to Magic Mtn Amusement Park. I am 46 and have stage 1 bc with negative lymph nodes. I am a middle school teacher. I am also a registered nurse, but I haven't worked for a long time. Still keep my license active, but... I have two children, both going to college at Pensacola Christian College in Florida. God has blessed me greatly. My husband has been such a greast source of strength through this. His faith in God has been an inspiration to me. Thanks for asking....
Love, Jayne

Hi Sue,

What a neat idea ! My friends call me Cathy or Cat, my real name is Catherine. I am French. I was born in Algeria where my ancestors went after France lost Alsace to Germany. They were proud of being French-alsatians and preferred moving to Algeria to becoming German. That was back in 1870, so stubborness has been running in my family for a long time !

I grew up in France after the French-Algerian war. I have no memories of Algeria, I was too young when I left. After marrying Bob, who is American, I lived in Spain where Bob was stationned (he was then in the Air Force). I spent a year there, then he left the Air Force and we moved to California, then 5 years later we moved to France, and now Switzerland. I am the one with the travel bug in the family !

I was diagnosed with BC in April 99. I was 37 at the time. We had just moved from France to Switzerland, and I was scheduled for surgery 2 days before being confirmed in my new job. I was so lucky : far from letting me go, my company supported me 100%, even paying what my medical insurance would not cover. I only had a lumpectomy, then chemo and radiations. No positive node. I have been away from treatments since January 2000. It feels great to be alive !

We have a daughter, Audrey, who is now 9 years old. Except for the beard, she looks just like her Daddy : blonde and green eyes.

I still work with the same company, Cartier. I am now working on projects, implementing a supply chain within the watch division. I love my job ! It can be stressful at times, so I am also taking sophrology classes once a week. It is a kind of relaxation technique, as well as positive thinking and meditation. Since I already was very positive, I now feel I'm on a high but it is cheaper than being on drugs. Just kidding ! (Or am I...?)

Love and hugs,
Cathy

Hi Sue,

Iam Kathy Tinkey. I am 47 years old with two grown sons. I used to work as a pharmacy technician, now I am a full time homemaker and loving every moment of it. I found this site after I quit working in June of last year. I am a two time breast cancer survivior. I was first diagnosed in Jan 1990 at age 35. Had a modified radical mastectomemy with no node involvement. Then the cancer recurred in Nov 1998, Stage IV with lung mets. I am on tamoxifen and doing extremely well. Have never taken chemo, had 6 weeks of radiation. God has blessed me tremendously and I hope to be able to spread that hope to others. I live in Mineral, Virginia at Lake Anna. That is an hour northwest of Richmond or 2 hours south of Washington, DC. I love to garden and my husband and I spend lots of time on the water in the summer.

God Bless,
Kathy

Hi! I'm 38 and a social worker in Pell City, Alabama. I was 37 when I was descovered I had breast cancer. Since I have a long family history of breast cancer, I've always thought of it as "when will it happen" instead of "if it will". I had a bi-lateral mastectomy in august of 2001, chemo from October2001 to February 2002, and am now undergoing the process of reconstruction. I have also found two more suspicious masses in what is left of my breast so I'm going for a 2nd opinion tomorrow.

susanpecq said:

My name is Sue Jacob and I live just west of Paris, France in a small town called Le Pecq.
I'm 50 and was diagnosed with breast cancer last November only weeks after finally quitting a very stressful job as Peoplesoft Manager for an international telecommunications company in Paris. I'm American but have been living in France for the past 25 years with my French husband Jacques. I was born in Germany (father in the army) and have lived in England, Japan, Belgium and Gabon (Africa) in addition to a few years in the US of A.We have three children, ages 20, 17 and 13. I had lots of projects lined up once I quit work but those are on hold while I complete 4 chemeo sessions, another operation (to get what they didn't get the first time round) and then six weeks radiation. I love golfing (also on hold for a while),reading, puttering around our Japanese garden and playing bridge. I've recently started teaching bridge too. The first chemeo session went pretty well, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the remaining ones will go as smoothly.
This site and the people who use it, have been an incredible source of support and advice for me. I think you're all so very brave and upbeat. Also, reading what others have gone through makes me feel less alone and gives me courage to go and beat this nasty business!!
Sue

My name is Tara I am a 5 year survivor of stage 3 with 3cm tumor that went undetected and spread, resulting in another lump to arm pit, with 11 out of 21 nodes positive. I had mastectomies, chemo and radiation treatments. Life has given me many challenges and quality for my life is just another, as I see it. I am still struggling with my health issues, something that seem to still plague me. I will just keep beating my drum and I am sure we all get to the bottom of it, I am hopeful. Glad to see so many women are in need of a support chat. I am in Vancouver Canada on Pacific time. I hope that we can all figure a time a day that could suit most of us if not all, wouldn't that be nice. I have been here at the site now for a year and will forever be grateful to all of you.
Tara