Weekly Round Up

Time for this week’s round-up of the best of the blog posts which I’ve read over the past week. These are the posts that have moved me, taught me something, inspired me, and which I’ve wanted to share with you. Don’t forget if you have written a post which you would like readers to see, just leave a comment below.

With the death this week of David Bowie and Alan Rickman, it didn’t take long for our collective hackles to rise on the language used to describe their demise. Yes.. you guessed it..they both “lost their battle” after a “courageous fight”. It seems no matter how many times we write and speak about this, journalists opt for the laziest option in reporting cancer-related deaths. The Cancer Curmudgeon has some words for them in her latest blog.

It may not make the news in quite the same way, but it seems like every week, we lose another precious life to metastatic breast cancer.  Deb, Lara, Mandi, Kathi , Grazia and Susanne pay tribute to Holley Kitchen.

One of the criticisms levelled against social media, and particularly Facebook, is that we only show the best side of things. Not so in the BC blogosphere, where we show our lives in all its brokenness and humanity. For this I am grateful. It has made me become more understanding and more compassionate with our human frailties.  I thought of this as I read Justine, Stacey,  Liza,  Flo and Jen this week and to quote Jen’s title I can’t thank you enough for sharing so honestly with us. As Elizabeth writes, “My life is not an inspirational poster. I am not perfect and I am getting more and more okay with that”.

Of course, one person’s telling it like it is, is another person’s “negativity” – a theme brilliantly taken up by Eileen this week.

Vickie has a slightly different take on this – a reminder to look beyond the words to the intention behind them:

As a second language speaker (Mandarin Chinese), I understand how easy it is to say the wrong thing by using incorrect words or wrong grammar, etc.  However, as a second language teacher, I also understand how important it is to look at the big picture context of what is being said and to understand the meaning without nitpicking each and every word.

A poignant reflection on family celebrations and tradition from Ann. And another poignant reminder of the reality of MBC from Lisa:

Please keep in mind that patients now and patients in the future want to live in a world where people, including our oncologists, do not have thoughts that can be shaped into the words, “You’re gonna die anyway”. That same thought sits in my mind and throat too, every day, every second. It hurts. It is the truth, and it needs to change.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere…

Philippa has given a lot of thought to her three-word mantra for the new year and has come up with some wonderful words to guide her.

Beth is celebrating no evidence of disease with her latest scan.

Uzma shares a list of her  favorite inspirational quotes.

Congratulations to the Seasoned Sistah on her third blogoversary.

Everything you ever wanted to know about DIEP Flap reconstruction surgery you will find on Carrie‘s latest post.

Anna shares some striking drawings made by her father related to her brain mets diagnosis.

As someone who has been dealing with insomnia for many years, I could really identify with Detrice‘s description of it in her latest post.

The lovely Jo and her metastatic breast cancer advocacy work is featured on the Anti-Cancer Club website.

Caroline , BC Consortium, Dr Attai, and Dr Elaine Schnatter weigh in on the perpetually-confusing breast cancer screening recommendations.

Nancy shares her ten goals for her breast cancer memoir.

Finally this week, I leave you with a lesson on kindness via Audrey’s blog.

Until next week,

Be kind to one another,

Yours with love

Marie xxx