Breast Cancer – Page 8

Breast Cancer Trusting God in the “I Don’t Want To’s”

February 20, 2018 KimHarms

When I discovered a lump in my breast on January 9, 2016 (there are some dates you don’t forget), I opened a new Word document on my computer and started typing. The title of the doc? When You Think You Might Have Cancer. By the time I stopped adding to that document months later, it was 55 typed pages long. Add to that all the journaling I did with my handy ink pen and I have close to 80 pages of my cancer experience on paper. Yowzers. This week will mark the 2nd anniversary of my bilateral mastectomy, and I’ve…

Breast Cancer Your Hurting Friend Might Need You to Clean Her Toilets But She Probably Won’t Ask

February 6, 2018 KimHarms 2Comment

I remember the day Carter started kindergarten. The eldest and most timid of my children, I can say with certainty his first day of school would still rank somewhere in the top 5 if he kept a Terrible-Horrible-No Good-Very Bad-Day list. That was a long day followed by a long difficult year of adjustment. But he got through it. I remember the day Owen realized he didn’t have super powers. It was a blow to his self-confidence when his dad broke the news that it was a remote control turning on the ceiling fan; not the super-spin motion created by Owen’s alter…

Breast Cancer 5 Breast Reconstruction Gifts

January 23, 2018 KimHarms 67Comment

Every woman is different and there are a lot of varieties of reconstruction surgery, but the following are 5 things I greatly appreciated while walking down the road to reconstruction. If you have a friend who’s going through this bizarre and challenging life circumstance, she might appreciate something from this 5 Breast Reconstruction Gifts list. A Sherpa Blanket Sherpa blankets are super-soft, ultra warm blankets that you can just sorta hibernate in. My friend Marti gave me one, and I called it my magic blanket. I slept with it for months. Even when I finally went back to my bed…

Breast Cancer Body Image After Breast Reconstruction (Walk With Me Podcast)

January 4, 2018 KimHarms 5Comment

Sometimes it’s hard to look in the mirror. I had the opportunity to talk with Tori Haverkamp several weeks ago about body image and learning to live with my altered form after a bilateral mastectomy and breast reconstruction. There are so many pieces that come into play when walking through breast reconstruction process, but body image is not something that I thought I would struggle with at all. As it turns out though, losing a piece of me changed the way I looked at myself. And it kind of broke my heart. But God is good,…

Books & Book Reviews 5 Most Meaningful Books Read in 2017

January 2, 2018 KimHarms

Warrior in Pink, Author: Vivian Mabuni Vivian’s cancer story is different than mine, but the beginning in much the same. As I read the first couple chapters of her book, I was right back in those first days, remembering the fear, the sadness, the helplessness, the desperate prayers. . . Her words, though hard to read, played a role in my emotional healing. That, along with her willingness to be open and raw in the telling of her cancer story and the God who brought her through it, put this book on my favorites list this year. Wednesdays Were…