Photo Courtesy of Raub Photography After I was diagnosed with breast cancer, food started landing on my doorstep. Lots of food. Sometimes there was a person at the other end of the casserole and sometimes the meals just magically appeared in the big blue cooler outside the front door. My family appreciated it all. (Even if some of it pushed the boundaries of our boring Harms tastebuds.) One of the first meals we received came from a group of high school girls from our church. Just a week or so after my diagnosis, these lovely girls…
Welcome to Breast Reconstruction Thoughts (a profile series) at Life Reconstructed. Each Tuesday this fall, I will feature a woman who has undergone a single or bilateral mastectomy. Most have also undergone breast reconstruction, but some have not. Some entered this world through cancer, others due to testing positive for the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene which highly increases their chances of a future cancer diagnosis. Each woman will tell us a little bit about herself and her experience. I hope their words will serve to bring encouragement to those who need it, and enlightenment to those who haven’t walked this…
Breast Reconstruction Breast Reconstruction – Thoughts From Women Who Have Been There (a profile series)
On Tuesdays, starting next week, I will begin featuring profiles of women who have undergone a single or bilateral mastectomy. Most of the women to be featured have been through reconstruction of some sort, and a few have opted to go flat as it’s called in the breast cancer world. There’s no right or wrong answer, but it’s a decision all of us in the “mastectomy club” have to make. These profiles are not meant to be exhaustive interviews. Instead they will highlight some key parts of the process, providing insight and encouragement to women who have unwittingly found themselves…
Look what I found in the big wide world of the Internet while doing a little writing research – my story on author Shirley Corder’s website. I remember when she requested my cancer story for her Testimony page, but I don’t remember ever seeing it after if was published. What a fun little surprise. Things like this make my heart happy. It’s a boost of encouragement from God through my computer screen. He’s like – Hey Kim, I know that sometimes you think you’re losing your mind with this whole writing thing and that you should give up and apply…
We live a construction life over here at the Harms house. I’ve been watching my man build amazing things for two decades. But I never imagined there would be a point in my life when a piece of me would have to be physically reconstructed. That at age 40 my chest would literally be taken apart and put back together. During that process of physical breast reconstruction, non-physical parts of my life were reconstructed as well. Pieces of my marriage were taken apart and reconstructed. Pieces of my thought life were taken apart and reconstructed. Pieces of my self-esteem were…