A Break From Positive Thoughts

by Tammy Myers

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My sweet baby girl woke up from her nap today with a fever. She came running into my office carrying her soft blankie (as she calls it) and Boss, her favorite stuffed doggy from Aunt Misty. She slowly opened the door and peeked her little round face in while giving me her best… “can I get up now” look. She slept for a good 2 hours and 45 minutes today, so I said, “you can come in sweetie”. Her eyes lit up and her cautious little face turned into a big smile as she ran over to me. She quickly climbed up onto my lap and then turned on the her innocent inquisitive charm, as she does every single day. She has a way of being playfully manipulative with her innocent curiosity, in an attempt to shift my “work focus” over to her, by making very funny and overly expressive faces and asking very detailed questions about every photo or graphic she sees on my monitors. She is always very strategic with her questions because she wants to buy as much time as she can, but the secret is on her. This one-on-one snuggle time at my desk with my sweet girl, is one of my favorite parts of the day, and I want to drag it out as much as she does on most days. After a year of living with the fear that cancer could take me away from my little girl and that she could actually be forced to grow up without a mommy, I have learned to appreciate and love even the littlest of moments…. and this daily moment is one of them.

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Today Marks One Year Since My Bilateral Mastectomy

by Tammy Myers

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One year ago at about this exact moment in time, I was being wheeled off to the first of many scary surgeries. Today was the day that I officially said goodbye to my breasts and to my body, as I had always known it. But today was also the day that I was forced to say hello to a life with cancer. I didn’t know it at the time, but today was going to be a very pivotal day in my breast cancer journey and will most likely be a day that I always remember. Looking back through the photos, I am realizing that I no longer know the young, shy, and naive woman that I am seeing. I am grateful and even somewhat proud of how strong I was in what I now know to be very scary moments, but I am also astonished at how clueless I really was about what was heading my way, which may have been a tiny blessing as well.

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The words I’ve been longing to hear

by Tammy Myers

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So today was the day. Post treatment oncology check-round 2. In some ways I have been looking forward to going to this appointment just because I would get to hug my amazing oncologist and my nurses, but I do have to admit that there is a certain amount worry that tends to creep into my mind in the days, minutes and hours before I head to my oncology visits. I have felt it a little more this time around because of a few articles that found their way onto my feed in the past two days. 2 articles in particular that were written about my exact cancer and how it can become metastatic and spread to the entire body as well as another article about someone who is currently losing their battle with cancer as I type these words. The good news is that, I can finally glace at these headlines, and even read these articles without bursting into tears and tumbling into an obvious emotional tailspin. But deep down the words still evoke a certain amount of fear and unsettle my calm, positive, and optimistic demeanor just a bit.

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Sometimes a Hat, a Wig, or a Scarf Does Far More Then Just Cover Your Head.

by Tammy Myers

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There are a lot of posts rattling around in my mind right now because every day seems to be the one year anniversary of something scary from the beginning stages of my cancer journey, but I had to finally put this post into words tonight because I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I have always cared about my appearance and I have always liked to look or dress nice, but I didn’t realize what a difference it made until I was about 18. Right about the time I graduated from high school, I started to realize that people treated me differently when I was dressed down, in comparison to when I was dressed up. So beyond the hours that I spent working at a local daycare, I almost exclusively dressed like a business professional at the age of 17-18. To the point that most people that met me actually thought I was, or at least thought that I was older and more mature. I kept this up all the way through college and even early on into my career. Actually I think I kept it up until I turned 30, and it hit me that it was now better to try to look younger and more hip. However, I still have a love for business attire and I have never forgotten the difference in how people treated me when I was dressed like a professional rather then a student. I just didn’t realize that the entire notion would come back into play for me again later in life…. Just in a very different way.

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False Progress

by admin

I was really impressed with the fact that I was actually able to fall asleep during a medical appointment for oh 3.5 minutes during today’s… Correction yesterday’s acupuncture clinical trial appointment. That was until it occurred to me that those three minutes of sleep tricked my body into believing it had gotten a full nights sleep.

So here I lay; with bloodshot and burning eyes, very achy joints and muscles, and a mind that is going a mile a minute. After several failed attempts to “power down” my body and my mind, I am now watching HGTV reruns and dreaming up passion projects, all while wondering if I should just fully give in, get out of bed, and write. I’m mean really, if I’m going to be awake all night, I should at least have progress to show for it right?

Early menopause induced insomnia and joint pain is the worst. Here comes sleep medication round two. Fingers crossed

‪#‎imtooyoungformenopause‬ ‪#‎insomniastinks‬
‪#‎mypersonalpinktime‬

Officially home

by admin

So we are officially on our way home from the airport and I see this on Facebook. No offense to my favorite person, but I think Ellen may have been a little tired or even a bit hung over after the Grammys. Don’t get me wrong, Tuesday’s show was awesome. I mean really, I got to see Ellen and the sexiest dad alive up close. But as I sit here laughing my butt off I’m realizing that Ellen was far more serious then she typically is when I was there. So in a completely grateful and appreciative way, I must say that the stars aligned for me to get tickets to Ellen’s show on the one year anniversary of the first day I was told I had cancer, which still gives me the chills, but they might have aligned a tad bit incorrectly. I think I was supposed to be at this show that was taped on the 17th, the one year anniversary of my biopsy (which could be argued as the actual day I was diagnosed smile emoticon, not only to see Adele and make both of my goals for 2016 come true, but also to see Ellen doing something so funny that not even she couldn’t hold it together. My stomach hurts I’m laughing so hard. I love Ellen.
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‪#‎mypersonalpinktime‬
#‎ellenandadeleprankjambajuice‬

Spectrum Health Beat

by Tammy Myers

From breast cancer to The Ellen DeGeneres Show By

Memorable trip to California studio caps off a courageous year of battling through surgery and treatment.

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You wouldn’t normally think a breast cancer diagnosis would lead to The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

But for Tammy Myers, the signs pointing to this moment have long been in place. And not just because DeGeneres is the one person who could make her laugh during chemotherapy.

Sitting in the audience at the show in Burbank, California, on Tuesday capped off a year of battling through surgery and treatment.

Full Story here

#SpectrumHealthBeat

Special Surprise Gone Viral

by admin

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As most of you know, a very big dream of mine is coming true in a few days as I head to Burbank, CA to attend a live taping of the Ellen show with my very dear heart friend, Vicki, well a pretty special friend and former teacher who has become family over the years set out to make my trip a little more special.

She secretly enlisted the help of her niece Nicole and her friend Hannah to put a video together to send to Ellen asking her to take a Selfie with Vicki and I. Knowing that she cares about me enough to step out of her comfort zone and do something like this, means the world to me and the video alone is a very special gift. However things got a little more special today. Ok things got flat out crazy today. I can’t share a the details of what happened today, however I can share this. Fox 17 West Michigan, got wind of this my friend Alice’s video and contacted me to see if I would do an interview with them. Just like the interview back in March they were at my house with a camera crew in less then 45 minutes.

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A day full of appointments

by admin

Today was full of appointments. I started off with a little post surgery Physical therapy. Ok a lot of post surgery Physical therapy. I love Amy, but my the cording in my arm, chest, and neck do not. We are making progress and even broke one of the cords today…. I’m not going to lie and tell you that wasn’t painful. But, Like many things, I’m realizing this is physical recovery is going to be a long process. From there I met with a very special past nurse and got to chat with a very special previous doc for a bit as well, and then left for my plastic surgery appointment.

My surgeon made my day by telling me that I’m one of her most inspiring patients. Little does she know, she’s pretty amazing herself. It’s a funny feeling to know that your doctors are following your posts, but I only have great things to say about everyone on my medical team so the more I think about it, I am glad that they stop in from time to time to hear that they are loved. It’s so important to feel good about your medical team. I feel pretty blessed to have each and everyone of them in my corner.

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