The Merits of the Case

Found at my new favorite website, Courtoons.net.

Posted by Kim at 07:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You may have noticed that there have been some technical glitches around here lately. Thanks to my favorite blog master, things seem to be working again. In celebration, I'll be posting a long overdue update very soon.

Posted by Kim at 04:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Spring is here...spring into action by doing your monthly breast self-exam!

Posted by Kim at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Please take the time to check those breasts!

Posted by Kim at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's that time...have you done your monthly breast self-exam?

Posted by Kim at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am obsessed with hair. I have spent more time in the last year and a half thinking, talking, worrying, and writing about hair than I ever thought that I would. I’m sure that this is just another one of those unexpected cancer side-effects, and I wonder how long it will last.

I am amazed when I think about all the different hair styles I have had in the last year and a half, many of them chronicled by photos on this blog. My hair has been long-ish, light blonde, dark blonde, shoulder length, chin length, short, crew cut, shaved, gone, curly, wavy, and straight. My closets and drawers are overflowing with wigs, hats, headbands, barrettes, elastic bands, and scarves. The cupboard under my bathroom sink is chock full of shampoo, conditioner, gel, mousse, pomade, serum, and hairspray for blonde hair, long hair, baby hair, short hair, straight hair and curly hair. My hair has had an identity crisis.

While I was going through the process of losing, mourning, and growing my hair, I wrote here about how I noticed everyone’s hair more than I ever did before. One of the first things I noticed about people when I didn’t have any hair was the color, texture, length, amount, and style of theirs. It is still one of the first things I notice, even though I have more of my own.

My hair started to come in a little straighter at some point in the last few months, until it began to drive me really crazy. I had straight/wavy hair on top and curls on the bottom, and I couldn’t do anything except put it back in a headband every day. I finally made an appointment with my hairdresser, took in an old picture of my hair circa 2006, and asked her if she thought we could make that happen now. She washed and highlighted and snipped and razored, and my hair now resembles my old hair. I have to straighten it each morning to get the ends to match the rest of it, but it is my hair. I kept trying to appreciate the curls while I had them, but all I really wanted was to have my old hair back.

Now I spend a lot of time touching it, running my hands through it, and reveling in the feeling of it blowing in the wind. I still have a “bad hair day” from time to time, but I find that I’m not as concerned about that as I once would have been. I have hair, and that is enough.

I was showing someone at work pictures of my family last week and we came upon pictures of me from two years ago. My hair was shoulder length and bright blonde back then, and he was taken aback by the image. I thought about it later, and realized that he has only ever known me with dark blonde super-short and curly hair—he never thought of me as a blonde with long hair. My cancer experience is so much a part of me that it is hard for me to imagine that people who are just meeting me for the first time now have no idea. They don’t know how it has changed me, because they didn’t know me before the diagnosis. They don’t think of me as “Kim who had breast cancer” because they only know me as “Kim.”

But when I think about myself now, I almost always think about my cancer experience. It is as much a part of me as the descriptors of “mom” and “law student” and “short.” I am surprised by that, and by my inability to escape it. When I was in the middle of treatment, I dreamed about the day that it would be over and that I could stop thinking about it. I am finding that even when the treatment is over, however, it isn’t something that is easily forgotten. And just as I am getting used to my new hair, I am still getting used to a new world order that includes my identity as a cancer survivor.

Pictures of the current hair style to come soon….

Posted by Kim at 02:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

There's no better way to beat the winter chills than by doing your monthly self-exam! Today is the day!

Posted by Kim at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have volunteered to be a Breast Cancer 3-Day Ambassador again this year and last week the event publicist I have been working with asked me if I wanted to appear on NBC5’s Sunday news show as a spokesperson. I hesitated at first because it meant a very early drive into the city, but Randy convinced me to go for it with a promise to accompany me. As it turned out, when they knew he was going to be with me they wanted to interview him, too, so we both got some camera time.

The last time I did this was in August just before the walk. That day was warm and sunny, and we didn’t have to be at the studio until 8:45 a.m. This time we had to be there at 5:45 a.m., and there was no sun or warmth to be found as we headed downtown at 4:30 a.m. We parked relatively close to the NBC studio, but it was still a cold, dark walk through the all but silent and deserted city streets this morning. We sloshed through icy slush and stepped carefully over treacherously snow-covered sidewalks to get to the same “secret door” we entered last August.

Just like last time, we waited in the NBC “greenroom” with the other guests (a “fashion expert and author” and a representative of Hawthorne Mall) and some NBC staff members until it was time for us to go on. In August, the anchor (Ellee Pai Hong) came to talk to us before the interview, but this time we were on our own until it was time for us to walk to the news desk area and take our seats. As we rounded the corner from the backstage/control area to the studio area, we saw three tall chairs set up directly across from the news desk surrounded by several cameras and lights. An employee told us to choose a seat as she pointed us toward the chairs. As soon as we were in the room, everything began to speed up. Alex Perez, the anchor who interviewed us this morning, walked over to where we were sitting, sat down on his chair, and started reviewing his notes and asking me questions about myself and the walk. At the same time, crew members miked Randy and me. The woman who was miking me was obviously frustrated with the tangled cord of my mike, and she was still desperately trying to untangle it as the countdown to on-air began. She got it untangled and clipped on, and then another crew member ran up to re-tuck the front of my shirt just before the cameras started rolling.

As it did in August, the interview itself went very quickly and I hardly remember what Alex asked or what I answered. I do, however, remember the wrong answer I gave when he asked me about registering for the walk now. I told him it was a good idea to register now because it takes six to eight months to train and fundraise for the walk, but I was supposed to say it takes four to six months. Oops!

Here is a link to a video of the interview on YouTube. It was recorded from a TV so it's a little fuzzy but you can get the idea. If you are thinking about participating in the Breast Cancer 3-Day here in Chicago or anywhere else, it is a good time to register. If you are in Chicago and would like to join The Chest Nuts, we would love to have you. Randy and I will be crewing rather than walking this year, but it sounds like quite a few of The Chest Nuts will be walking again. You can join our team by clicking on the link on this page. You can also find out information about the walk in other cities from that page. And if camping isn't your thing and you would rather just make a donation, you can do that, too.

Posted by Kim at 04:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today is January 15th! It's not too late to resolve to do a monthly breast self-exam...just make sure you start today!

Posted by Kim at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And in the New York Times, no less.

Update: As far as I can tell, the story will be in the print copy on Thursday, January 8th on page E6.

Update: There is an audio interview, too. To listen to the audio, just look on the left hand side of the screen right under the picture in the article. You will see a box that says "Multimedia" with a play button and my name just underneath that. You can listen to me, then Dave Shack, and then just let it loop and listen to us both over and over and over again. Just what you want to do, I know. :)

Posted by Kim at 09:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)