The Meaning of Skin Saving Mastectomy

I hope this isn't too graphic for some, but so many people have asked me details about just what happens during a mastectomy, and therefore I thought I'd share some information on the subject. Prior to my diagnosis, I assumed that when a woman had a mastectomy the surgeon would just remove the breast and somehow a "replacement" breast would be sewed onto the location where the original breast existed.

Not so . . . it just goes to show you how naive I was!

The good news is that plastic surgeons now perform what is referred to as a "Skin Saving Mastectomy." In simple terms, the nipple is removed, the tissue inside the breast where the cancer exists is removed, and either an implant (or in my case tissue from my stomach) is inserted into the cavity, and a flap of skin is temporarily placed where the nipple used to be.

I know, it sounds weird and believe me it LOOKS weird. However, after several months when everything is healed up the surgeon actually tattoos the skin flap and from what I've seen in the before & after photos, the end result is visually identical to a normal nipple. There's minimal scarring, and women I've spoken to who have gone through this tell me that in a six months to a year, the scars fade to the point where they are almost unnoticeable.

So there you have it. Again, I know this may be too much information for some, but it seems many people are interested in what the process entails. And had I known this level of detail when I received my diagnosis, it certainly would have spared me some mental agony wondering what I was going to be facing from a surgical perspective.

The bottom line is that my plastic surgeon is a total perfectionist, and I have total confidence in his ability so I'm leaving it up to him!

Who would have thought that someday I would have a tattoo????

Ask and You Shall Receive

Yesterday I sent an email out to my friends and co-workers telling them officially that I'm participating in the Susan G. Komen 3Day Walk for the Cure in August. I will be walking with my team, the "Pink Divas," for 60 miles (20 miles a day for 3 days) to raise money and build awareness for breast cancer research.

There's not much that makes me speechless, but I have to say I was overwhelmed with emotion when, in less than 24 hours, I exceeded my initial goal of raising $2,300 for this cause. When I saw the emails rolling in saying, "You have received a donation . . ." over and over again, it was one of those "aha" moments when you know in your heart that you're doing the right thing. Here's a list of those who have helped me reach my initial goal -- THANK YOU to everyone for your generosity!

Judy Alden
Mary Lou Hely
Geary Morris
Pam Nale
Tracy Brown
Marlene Lehky
Kim Aitken-Young
Janet Cunningham
Angelique - Web Storytellers
Cheryl Sabin
Linda Beaton
Victor DiLeo and Marlene Bunch
Rich Villalobos
Tina Gangel
Amy Alfano
Lisa and Bill Rolland
Bob Abrams
Mike French - INX

This means more to me than I could ever express in words. I know in my heart that one day the world will be free of breast cancer, and if we all do our part that day will come sooner than we can imagine. To everyone who has donated: I am proud to call you my friends.


Here's a photo of me with my fellow teammates Sandy Hargrave and Nan Cutler. Go Pink Divas! And welcome to our newest team member, Kathy Knorr who will be traveling from Chicago to walk in the Denver event.

Making Strides for Breast Cancer

Yesterday I participated in a 5K walk sponsored by the American Cancer Society called "Making Strides for Breast Cancer" and I thought I'd share some pictures from the event. Despite a soggy weekend here in Denver, the sun came out and Mother Nature cooperated to make it a fantastic morning. I walked with the folks from the St. Joseph Breast Care Center, which is where I've been having my treatments.

Photo of the St. Joseph team



A view of the crowd - lots of PINK!




During the Walk



It was a great way to start the morning and it really felt good to be surrounded by so many people who care about eradicating this disease. Now it's back to training for the 60 mile walk in August!

Better and Better

Lately I've been thinking a lot about a friend of mine, Joy Sandberg, who died of brain cancer in September 1999. Joy was such an inspiration to me and as I experience this journey with breast cancer I think of her so often. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1991, just after her 40th birthday.

The doctors told her she had at most a year to live and she defied all odds and lived for almost 9 years, had a child who was 8 years old at the time of Joy's death, and she embodied hope and courage for all those years as she lived with her diagnosis. Every time I spoke with Joy and asked her how she was feeling, her reply was always, "Better and better." When I compare my experience to her incredibly brave journey I realize that she was brought into my life to teach me a lesson - that no matter how down you get, no matter what the doctors say, that hope and faith in yourself is such a powerful thing.

Today I participated in a 5K walk to raise money for breast cancer research and I thought of Joy all the way around Washington Park as the throngs of people surrounded me, everyone dressed in pink which is the universal color of breast cancer.

I feel so fortunate to have shared Joy's journey and know that she is looking down at me from wherever she is. It's quite humbling to think about how graceful and courageous she was, and when I start feeling sorry for myself all I need to do is remember how she handled her situation. So tonight I'm saying a special prayer in her honor and I'm just feeling damn lucky to be alive and have the positive prognosis that I have.

Notes From the Big Apple

I spent a few days in NYC attending an All Hands Meeting at Cisco and also met with one of my partners at the Cisco office. What a great feeling to be back at work and see everyone again (some in person, some via TelePresence). My energy level was fairly good and I was able to hang in there for almost a full day, which is a big deal considering that I've been out for almost 2 months.

In my free time I did a lot of walking, in preparation for the 60 mile Susan B. Komen walk I'm training for. Here are some photos I took along the way . . .


Park Avenue on a Sunday morning



Random Tulips springing forth



South Entrance to Central Park




My friend Janet Cunningham and I walked almost 7 miles on Sunday (leisurely walking, not fast paced), including a stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge:



Our reward on the other side was a yummy pizza and a glass of red wine! All in all a wonderful time and a relaxing way to usher in Spring and celebrate my good news from last week. Now I'm off to Chicago to meet with some of my other Cisco partners. It feels great to be back at work!

Back in the Saddle Again and Reflections on Thailand

I’m in New York for my first “back on the job” sojourn at Cisco after my surgery. I’ll admit I’m a little apprehensive about my energy level and stamina after being off work for six weeks, but at the same time I’m excited about getting back to work and engaging with my partners.

During my convalescence I’ve been compiling some Flip videos from my December Thailand trip with Andy and Will. Check out this video of our volunteer experience at the Elephant Nature Park near Chiang Mai, where we had the amazing opportunity to get up close to feed, bathe and interact with 34 elephants who have been rescued and now live in the happiness of a nature reserve where they’re free to roam and exist in their natural habitat. At the end of the video you'll see one of the baby elephants playing with a soccer ball -- probably one of the cutest things I've ever seen in my life. This unique experience is one of my favorite memories with my boys and I’ll treasure it forever. (Pardon the amateur videography but I wanted to share this with everyone.)

As an aside, I met a woman named Beth on my United flight yesterday who’s one year overdue on her mammogram, and she’s promised to get on it ASAP. I’m up to 25 people now on my quest to find 100 women who are overdue on their routine exams. It just goes to show that you never know how or when you’ll have an opportunity to make a random difference on someone’s life!

Time for Celebration

Today I spoke with my oncologist, Dr Dev Paul, who informed me that I definitely do NOT need chemotherapy as all the genetic tests on my tumors came back with very low numbers with respect to the chance of the cancer recurring at a later date. According to him, I have a 91% chance of being cancer free over the next 10 years. This is the best news I could have gotten!

I'm off to New York tomorrow morning to start work again and I'm really looking forward to a change of scenery. It's been 6 weeks since this journey began and I'm ready to get back into the "real world." I can't wait to see everyone in US Channels Marketing and re-engage with my partners. Yippee!

I wish every woman with this disease could have the same positive optimistic prognosis that I have. I must have a guardian angel out there looking over my shoulder.

The Waiting Game

Today is the BIG day - I awakened this morning and did my daily meditation and I'm ready to face the news, whatever the outcome. I will find out today for certain whether or not I'll need chemotherapy from my oncologist, as the results of my tumor testing will be complete. It's been kind of a rough weekend, very emotional as I developed an infection late last week at the incision site of my mastectomy. My plastic surgeon had to remove some dead tissue and put me on some strong antibiotics. Not sure whether I look like Frankenstein with all my scars, or maybe the Bride of Frankenstein. Frankly I've been healing really well so hopefully this is only a blip on the radar screen.

I was so moved last night watching the news to see Phil Mickelson after he won the Masters, embracing his wife who has been fighting breast cancer. I heard over the weekend that another friend in our community (mother of one of Andy's basketball friends from high school) has been diagnosed with breast cancer. However, to balance that news out I was just informed this morning that 2 more people in my circle have gotten their mammograms which had been postponed!

I'm off for my 4 mile walk this morning -- training for the 60 mile Susan B. Komen walk is going well so onward and upward to face the day! Will post more later when I hear from the doctor this afternoon. Thank you for all of your prayers and keep them coming strong today especially.

The Andre Center

Many people (myself included) are frankly overwhelmed when first hearing a diagnosis of breast cancer. My initial reaction was shock, followed by an numbness and feeling of disbelief. A member of the team of amazing people at the St. Joseph Breast Care Center, Sandra Walters, runs The Andre Center for Breast Cancer Education and Navigation. This organization exists solely for the purpose of assisting newly diagnosed breast cancer patients and their families navigate through the healthcare system and guide them in making the right decisions as they consider various treatment options.

I liken Sandra to a "concierge service" in a way, as she was so helpful to me after my diagnosis when I was overcome with anxiety and paralyzed with fear about my future. The Andre Center doesn't give medical advice, but Sandra helped me identify my surgeons and oncologist, and even assisted in making the appointments for me when it was all I could do to drag myself out of bed in the morning. At one point prior to my surgery, she arranged for me to meet with an Oncology Therapist on the St. Joseph staff, who was invaluable in helping me identify and prioritize what I needed from my well-meaning friends.

We've come so far from the days of women suffering this diagnosis in silence, and being left to fend for themselves while being in a highly emotional state after being diagnosed with breast cancer. It's people like Sandra who make this journey easier. Check out their website at www.andrecenter.org to learn more about the Andre Center, and see the attached video clip to get a glimpse of this remarkable and caring woman who runs the organization.



You'l be receiving an request from me in a few days to support me in the 60 mile 3 Day Susan Komen Walk I'll be participating in during August. Wouldn't it be wonderful if some day in the future we will no longer have a need for something like The Andre Center if breast cancer is eradicated. But for now, please keep those donations coming!

An update - I am now up to 23 women who have had their mammograms that they have been putting off. Go Pink Divas!!!!

Easter Frivolities

I had a dozen or so people over for Easter dinner and thought I'd post these pics showing how much fun we had. (And no, I didn't cook the entire meal -- all I did was order the Honey Baked Ham and everyone else did all the work!) As you can see, George Clooney and Sadie were all decked out and resting up before the guests arrived.



Here's George after a little too much partying! The proverbial lampshade on the head look . . . or maybe he's been watching too much MTV with Will and he's going for the gangsta look.



Seriously, my friends Sandy and Nan (who will join me on the Pink Divas 60 mile walking team) made an AMAZING coconut cake. Here's a pic of us getting ready to do our mile walk to get rid of all those calories we ingested. I'm still walking them off three days later!

Walking For a Purpose

Here's a photo of my brand spanking new shoes I bought yesterday. Some of you may be thinking, "Hmmm, Nike? Not Burberry, Coach or Prada? What does this have to do with Nancy Miller? She doesn't wear athletic shoes."

Well . . . I've made the commitment to walk 60 miles to cure breast cancer in the Susan Komen 3 Day Walk in August 2010 in Denver. Soon you'll be getting an email with details on this event, for which I am committed to raising $3,000 in funding. I know . . . it's really amazing to think that me, the Starwood Queen, will be sleeping in a tent for 2 nights and taking a shower in a semi-truck. But that's what this freaking disease has done to me. It's made me look deep inside and say to myself, "What can I do to make a personal statement about the importance of curing this damn disease?"

One way to get closer to that goal is to march alongside 1,000 women in Denver this August. So I'm doing it -- me, the original couch potato who truly has never exercised on a regular basis. My team will be called the "Pink Divas" and our tagline will be: SAVING THE WORLD ONE BREAST AT A TIME.

Check out my video below to see my first day of training. I'm proud to say that I walked 1.5 miles today, just 4 weeks post-surgery. I'm pooped but happy and invigorated to know that I can make a difference for other women and perhaps prevent them from going through the personal hell that I've experienced over the past 6 weeks since my diagnosis.

Slight Turn in the Road

Ok, after I posted my GREAT news last night (see previous blog post), the oncologist called me again this morning to say that the Oncotype Dx test was only performed on the largest tumor.

So now it's down to another two weeks of the waiting game as they need to perform the same dang test on the second tumor, which according to Dr. Paul has a totally different pathology. Long story short, there are two types of breast cancer: lobular and ductal. Tumor A was a mix of lobular and ductal, Tumor B is ductal. I still have good vibes that it will turn out ok, but I must say it has put a little damper on the news.

I might add that this is part of the dysfunction of our wonderful health care system in the US. Not to place blame on anyone here, but United Healthcare will not cover testing of both tumors at the same time. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.

So that's the scoop for the day. I'm still feeling positive but what a ride this has been. I feel like I'm on a cross country road trip with a bunch of detours, but at least I'm continuing on the journey and will hopefully reach my destination soon.

VERY frustrating. Some days it seems like it's one step forward, one step backward.