Organ Donors: Can I Donate My Boobs?

Before I was diagnosed with cancer, I had considered becoming an organ donor and having that designation placed on my driver's license.  Well, I highly doubt anyone wants my organs anymore. 

My sad little organs have endured 20 weeks of chemotherapy along with large doses of antihistamines and anti emetic drugs.  Hopefully, they don't have any stray cancer cells hiding in their tissue.

The charitable side of me still wants to donate a body part, though.  I want to help someone in need.  In fact, the first things I would like to donate are my boobs.

What?!?

Nobody wants my boobs?!?

I can't possibly understand why.

Lake Church

I did twenty weeks of chemotherapy during the spring and summer of this year.  My head was fashionable bald and decorated with feminine accessories.  I still had terrific boobs albeit one was trying to kill me.  With all that in mind, my husband and I decided to take advantage of the terrific weather and spend Sabbaths down at the lake. 

Lake church is terrific.  Depending on our mood, we camp, dive, swim, picnic, hike, walk the dog, or skip rocks on the water's surface.  I absolutely love going to the lake.  It is so peaceful and soothing. 

My husband and I used to have lake church all the time before we had kids.  We still try to go to the lake with the kids but sometimes it can be like trying to corral ants.  However, my New Year's resolution will be to go to the lake as often as I can.

Sara Bald

I did a photo shoot with an awesome photographer this summer.  Here are the links to the pictures.

http://brandireynolds.com/2012/06/21/life-is-art-sara-is-a-warrior/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brandi-Reynolds-Photography/238973019533299

Lessons From Tyra

I secretly love to watch America's Next Top Model.  The hair, the makeup, the clothes all capture my imagination.  Their fashion ideas are so fun and funky.

Now that I am bald, I watch with a discriminating eye to see if I can swipe any fashion and makeup ideas for myself. 

For me, sporting a bald look takes guts and style.  I'm trying not to look like a small boy in summer so I wear dark eye makeup, shiny earrings, dark lipstick, and girly outfits.  So far, my strategy is working.  I still feel feminine. 

Thank you Tyra for shaving some of your models' heads!

The Buzz Cut

On my birthday looking very much like a harpy, I called my husband and asked if he would buzz my hair.  He agreed to do it.  With a sense of warped excitement, I headed home. 

There my husband stood with clippers in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other.  His brother and sister-in-law joined us for the fun and began to video tape the procedure.

Snip, snip, snip.  Off went my nasty strands of hair.

Buzz, buzz, buzz.  Now, my head was exposed to the world.

When I looked in the mirror, I was surprised to see my head was nicely shaped. 

"Very cool."  I thought to myself.

I guess if my head has to be shaved, it is a bit of a bonus to have a nicely shaped head.  However, my husband feels that I should have left my harpy hair on my head and run around town with no hat.  The shock value of my head would have been out of this world.

Locks of Love

When I started chemotherapy, I was told that all my hair would fall out.  Fortunately, I'm very warped and the thought of losing my hair did not bother me. 

Four weeks into chemotherapy, my hair began to shed like my fluffy border collie in the middle of summer.  That is not a pretty sight, I assure you.  I do have very thick hair.  So when a third of my hair fell out one morning, you couldn't even tell.  My husband and I decided to braid and cut my hair so I could donate it to Locks of Love before there were only three strands left.

My husband is such an artist.  He cut my hair into a really cute chin length bob that stylishly framed my face.  I was impressed.  A few days later, chemotherapy won the battle with my hair follicles.  The rest of my hair fell out in clumps until my head resembled that of a harpy's from World of Warcraft.

The Bucket List

I've started a bucket list of sorts.  It's written in chicken scratch on my calendar in the kitchen.  Things that I have included are storm chasing, becoming a scuba diving instructor, getting a snowboard, playing my husband's songs on the piano, relearning my Spanish, and redoing the backyard.  So far, I am actually working on these things.

I started the bucket list because I felt a little pressure to get some fun things done in my life that I had put aside.  Cancer has a funny way of changing priorities.  Life can't be stressful all the time.  That makes me a very sick girl.

So, I'm working on my fun and spontaneity.  I need to get that back in order to fulfill the neglected free spirit inside of me.

Vegan

After finding out about my breast cancer, I decided to become vegan.  Now, I've been vegetarian all of my life.  However, I've heard and read that eating more naturally and organically helps when fighting cancer.  Now I eat more dark, leafy vegetables and I try to buy more organic items.  It's a bonus when those organic items are also locally grown.  I also juice my vegetable periodically and make dragon slaying smoothies.  I've perfected both the veggie juice and the smoothie.  The smoothie is good now but wasn't when I first tried it.  The veggie juice is getting closer to V8 all the time.

I'd like to say that I am very strict about being vegan.  Sadly, I am not.  Most of the time I am 70% vegan and 30% angry.  How do you like them percentages?

Finding Out

I had just finished breast feeding my baby when I noticed some really weird changes in my right breast.  I am really lucky I weened my baby when I did because the tumor measured at least 5 cm at the time of my mammogram.  A few weeks later when I began chemotherapy, my tumor was 11x13 cm.  I also had a lump in my lymph nodes.

The reason I weened my baby when I did was because he got two teeth early.  My little baby was a biter and bit me with a vengeance while nursing one day.  That day was the last day he nursed.  That was God's weird way of looking out for me.

About Me

I'm a fairly young mom raising two little boys under the age of six.  I was diagnosed with breast cancer before my youngest turned a year old.

Most of the time, I try to look at the lighter side of life.  I write a very silly blog about my two boys that I started before I even knew I had breast cancer.  I don't think this blog will have the same flavor.  I'll try not to be morose.

I believe the point of this blog will be to navigate my life with cancer.  I don't want to tell anyone else with cancer how to live their life.  When you have cancer, the last thing you need to hear is advice on how to live your life.

Welcome to the darker side of my personality.

If you need a laugh, go to:
http://outnumberedhelpme.blogspot.com