Rolfing Portland

Good cancer news arrived in time for my birthday! Instead of 3-4 weeks of radiation (3 weeks on the left whole breast plus 1 week concentrated on the tumor area), they gave me the option of just doing the ultra-concentrated week on the tumor site. The dose per day is higher, but the total radiation will be less.
This is an option because they ran a LOT of tests that all came back good - my genetics as well as tests on the tissue they removed.

This means less missed work! I'm thinking I'll try working some half-days during the treatment (Sept 17-23) and for the following weeks. I've re-opened my online schedule at www.portlandrolfer.com and I welcome messages (by dm or text) with other schedule requests.

Side effects:

Sunburned skin - will be much less because it's way fewer treatments

Fatigue - this is the most common side effect and tends to peak 2-3 weeks *after* radiation is finished. I'm already having fatigue from the hormone blockers. Staying active every day yet also resting frequently, it's a delicate balance. So I'm seeking workout buddies, walking-in-Lone-Fir-Cemetery buddies, and nap buddies!

Nausea - I have an anti-emetic called ondansetron. Which is a fun name to say, try it. On-dance-a-tron! Sounds like a dance-off. So I'm seeking meal buddies because if I'm feeling crappy, having company helps me eat.

Breast shrinkage - this happens 3-5 years after treatment. I'll have less total shrinkage because it's a smaller area, but it will likely be asymmetrical. Okay, I'll take it!

Heart damage from radiation - they are skillful about this, but it's even safer for me to have just the tumor site instead of whole-breast.

Additional cancers from radiation - my doc says this is like a 1% risk, people are scared of it but it's really not a big concern.

All in all, this feels manageable!
https://forms.gle/8D3yGrZ8Gnnp4sCg7

Karin's Cancer Crew! Want to support me in my breast cancer journey? I humbly accept this support from my community. I'm fortunate to have the strongest friendship network of my life! So there's no pressure for anyone to help, and I'm asking people to only help in ways that really feel accessible and joyful. This form w...

I'm having surgery today, 10:30am-2:30pm pacific time!

I hosted a B**b Party to build up the love and good energy around this surgery.ore than 30 dear friends packed my little home (I wish I could have invited *everyone*!). Many of us embraced top-nudity and it felt deeply wholesome. We had many boob-themed activities, a Blessing for my breasts, and a belly dance performance.
I offered something that is part storytelling, part stand-up comedy. I'll be giving a short pithy version of it onstage on Aug 17, opening for my dear friend Charla Hathaway's show Naked At My Age. I'll post that event later.
Here's the longer version from the night of the B**b Party!
https://youtu.be/kEYFb--LQyA?si=hfvEL2cqLuFC_b3M

For local friends, if you'd like to help in person, you may fill out this Google Form to learn what kinds of help I would like, and to tell me what ways you would enjoy helping, and when. The different categories of help are organized by the theme of different "Love Languages"! https://forms.gle/aqEtoem4WwhUKvi66

For those who are far away, some other ways to support include:
- my Amazon wish list: https://a.co/6wqTevm
(I'll add more items to the wish list as I learn what I need)

I've been working half-time since my diagnosis in early May. Having cancer is very time-consuming! Lots of doctor visits, lots of self-education, and planning how to actually make use of the support that is being offered. I'll miss about a month of work after my surgery and then I'll have to ramp back up slowly, depending on how radiation goes.
I have some savings so I'm doing okay for now, but if anyone would like to make a donation, there's a way to do that via Mealtrain. https://mealtrain.com/8rq9l2 or to avoid the fee my venmo is .

In case you missed my previous post, I got diagnosed with breast cancer in May. I waited to share because there have been many rounds of biopsies, MRI, genetic tests, etc and I didn't want to announce it while the info was still changing. I'll provide a lot of details here to try to get ahead of some of the questions 🙂

There's a 2-centimeter-wide stage 1 tumor on the left, and "stage zero" cancer that is still contained within the milk ducts on the right, which is a large area and I will lose perhaps a third of that breast. My doctor is allowing me to do a double lumpectomy even though it's a big enough area that it's borderline for a mastectomy. The healing process (and the pain, the loss of function, the loss of fitness/strength, and lost work time) is much harder for mastectomy so I'm eager to avoid it.

In late August into early September I'll have 3 weeks of radiation. Unfortunately that will probably overlap with my birthday, Sept 7.

I won't have to do chemo. All of my cancer is "hormone-responsive" so I'm on a hormone-blocker called Tamoxifen. I'm on a half-dose for 2 years, which is the minimum. This is considered a "good" form of breast cancer as it is highly treatable.

They tested 90 cancer genes and I'm clear on all of them. 90% of breast cancer is not genetically linked! I didn't realize that - otherwise I would have been getting those free annual mammograms starting at age 40. My naturopath says that it might be caused by exposure to the now-banned pesticide DDT - when I was a child or even when my mom was in utero.

After I'm done the treatment, my lifetime risk of reoccurrence will be less than 5% - that's pretty good, given that the average woman's lifetime risk of cancer is 13%. *Forgive the cis-gender bias of this statistic - for genderqueer folks, gender-affirming hormone treatment changes cancer risks in various ways.

Karin's Cancer Crew! Want to support me in my breast cancer journey? I humbly accept this support from my community. I'm fortunate to have the strongest friendship network of my life! So there's no pressure for anyone to help, and I'm asking people to only help in ways that really feel accessible and joyful. This form w...

A year ago today, I got swept up in a magic spell. Diego Beithia was a friend/acquaintance from Spanish Conversation Group the previous year. We always enjoyed talking and there was mutual attraction but for various reasons we never made the love connection back then. He had moved back to the midwest and last July, he was only back for a visit when we happened to cross paths. That night we shared an earthshattering kiss that never seemed to end. We had a few dates before he left town and since then, we have been visiting each other in chunks of 2-4 weeks. Every visit, we fall more in love and drop into a deeper level of connection.
Diego melts my heart over and over.
I feel so seen and appreciated, on every level (including if I'm wearing a cute outfit or I tried a new way to do my makeup).
Diego has an incredible patience for my Spanish learning and helps me, corrects me, and then praises me generously when I fix errors or manage to communicate something complex. He told me that my ability to communicate about emotional topics in Spanish is impressive. I still have some big shortcomings in my Spanish, and I'm more motivated than ever to put in the effort because it immediately pays off in our connection. His English is pretty impressive (adorable accent too) so it's nice to have that as a safety net when my Spanish isn't enough.
We connect on soooo many levels.
I love dancing with him - whether it's salsa in Colombia, or Jujuba afrofunk here in Portland.
We cook healthy food together; I eat better when he's here.
We both love Lone Fir Cemetery, and we've spent time chilling with the massive trees there as well as going for a run together, were he runs fast laps and I run slow ones, trying to cut corners to meet up with him for another leg.
He inspired me to write my first love poem! in Spanish! and then a second one! I'll link to those in the comments.

And in the most recent discovery, we performed a song at a talent show together! He played the guitar and I sang to the Pixies "Where Is My Mind." It's a hard song to sing and I messed up but he was great and the audience loved us. This was at Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat and Conference Center's Summer Solstice celebration. We also volunteered to teach a 90 minute workshop called "The Art and Science of Flirtation"!
We taught nonverbal skills, conversational skills, and how to look for the "yes" - using a missed opportunity from our own history for roleplay! Then we taught a kissing lesson! We didn't have them practice with each other, but we did give a demo! People loved it and it sparked a lot of great conversation all weekend long.
Throughout all of these adventures, we keep each other laughing. We find so much delight in our connection. And it's obvious to people around us.... literal strangers stop to tell us how cute we are, what a nice couple we make, and how they hope we will live happily ever after.
I hope so too, but in the meantime we are still operating under the massive challenge of a long-distance relationship. With no real hope that it will ever become not-long-distance. Distance makes many aspects of our connection more difficult. It's super hard for me, and as I've been facing breast cancer, the distance is harder than ever. (If you missed the breast cancer post, it's here: https://www.facebook.com/KarinNoreenEdwards/posts/pfbid02gNrmceRMkRGeV2eDW2zHkPqUpC6nbvRhhn4SBsCvXzKyjpz4DSf9qKCBUKmMQAuNl)
We just had two and a half amazing weeks together, but he left on Saturday, and we didn't get to visit on his birthday 2 days ago, nor do we get to be together for our anniversary. So it's bittersweet.
However, even from a distance, I feel the steadiness of his love and care, and it makes this super hard time a little more tolerable.
Thank you Diego.

Want to know how fast your internet is? Google "speed test" and click the button. Thanks to my brother-in-law Tinelli! (Suz Tinelli)