Category: Recovery

Happy 2020!

Whether you had a night in or a night out, I hope you all brought in the new year just how you wanted to! Loooooong post here. Grab a cup of coffee or scroll through to what might interest you. I’ve got a mouthful today. Or is it a fingerful if your’e typing? Fingerful? Yeah, I kinda like it. The New Blog Look I’m ecstatic to be starting off the New Year by writing this post with my new look on the blog! Softer colors, (Thank you Tess for the new Graphic up above. She knew exactly what I wanted!) updated tabs at the very top on the menu bar (Yay!), I’ve now added categories which means future post and some of my most recent post will be easier to scroll through if you’re only looking to read about a particular topic like Breast Cancer or Camping or my WW […]

Strong and Scared, You Can be Both

What’s this? A blog post within days of each other?  It’s been a long two days so I thought I’d share. You know this is basically my journal and journaling can be like therapy for me, so here I am. Just so you know, this does have a happy ending but these two days were scary. You can be strong and scared at the same time. I’m learning. I recently found a lump in my breast. Ugh. Two days ago I had a regularly scheduled appointment with my oncologist and she gave me an exam to check out this new lump. It seemed like the size of a marble. Damn these breast. Even these new ones made of my belly tissue have me all emotional and worried. I remind you all to do a monthly self breast exam while I’m over here doing them daily. Last Christmas I found a […]

Catching Up on Summer

I hope you all are having a Happy and Healthy summer and that you are staying cool. I’m so ready for Fall. It’s my favorite season. All things Fall really can not some soon enough for me.  Here are a few highlights of whats going on in life right now. The Blog I have wanted to update the look of the blog for sometime now. I finally met with a Blog Consultant? Thats what I’ll call her anyhow. She does free lance work outside of her regular job making websites and blogs look their best. I have a few ideas and together we will come up with a new look. Also, I’m hoping that will encourage me to come up with a regular blogging schedule. I’ll never have time to do a daily post like I did for so many years, but committing to once a week is something I’d like […]

June and Gratitude

What a great month it was. I chose a “word” for the year at the beginning of 2019. My word is “Mindful”. I also went into 2019 knowing for a fact that the year would bring many wonderful things for me and my family, A few weeks back at the WW Studios the topic was Gratitude. I love this topic. I love discussing my passion for the word “gratitude” and how practicing gratitude can impact your daily life and your health and happiness. I feel like I have regularly practiced gratitude for a really long time. It’s what gets me through the tough stuff, big and small, and keeps me living life with a positive attitude. I’m grateful for so many things on a daily basis. Grateful for family and friends, a job, a roof over my head, fresh water at my fingertips, the opportunity to buy and prepare delicious food, […]

A Happy Place

I am happy to report that life is pretty awesome right now. I’ve determined that I need to “not commit” to when I will be able to post a blog. When it can happen, it will happen. I am going back to where I was at the beginning of this blog in 2011. This is my journal. I come here when I need to write. If sharing my day to day life, hobbies, experiences, struggles and challenges, successes, can help someone, then I am extremely grateful for that. There are many of you that have followed me for a very long time and I think about you when I am not blogging. I feel connected and obligated to many of you. I feel guilty for not blogging because I feel as though I have been a support source for you as I blog through my own experiences. I am a people […]

I’ve Got Nipples!

It’s been three weeks since getting my new nipples and these last three weeks have just been…….odd. I’m trying to imagine the expression on ones face if this is the first blog post of mine that they have ever read.  Hi. I’m Julie and I write weird stuff and post weird pictures, while trying to inform, yet not embarrass myself or my readers. For years I’ve blogged about WW and my personal successes and challenges. Now I also talk about Breast Cancer. I will be posting pictures in this post of my nipple reconstruction because I am sharing my experience in case you or someone you know is considering nipple reconstruction. It’s actually quite fascinating. I encourage any questions and nothing is off limits here. I had to come back and edit this post today based on what a member asked me at a WW Workshop I was coaching this morning.  First of all, she is […]

Mindfully Living. Being Present.

I wrote a really long and boring post detailing my 2018 Year in Review. I spent a gazillion hours writing it. After reading through it, I realized it was just for me. You’re welcome. I’ll hang on to it for myself (It was actually quite therapeutic for me to see how far I’ve come in a year!) and I’ll share with you why I chose the title that I did for this blog post, some of what I’ve been cooking in the kitchen, a few things I’ve had to eat out and I’ll share a link to the Free 30 Day Yoga Challenge that I’m doing. I chose the word Gratitude for the year. I didn’t even know I was going to chose a word, but that word had been with me in a powerful way since early November, and keeping it with me in a very mindful way, seemed like […]

Number Five

Now that I’ve mastered the voice command for blogging….this is one long post! It’s just me, sitting in bed with coffee this morning while it rains, talking into my phone. This is the perfect morning! Ha! On Thursday afternoon I picked up my first ever prescription glasses. They are progressive lenses. When I first put them on I assured the lady helping me that the prescription must be wrong. I couldn’t see a thing! She then assured me that the prescription was correct and that progressive lenses would take me a while to get used to. You guys, learning how to walk down stairs with progressives on is NO JOKE! A picture I sent to one of my grandkids last night. I can see! I should’ve been wearing prescription glasses a long time ago, which I knew. I have been getting by with the readers for a long time. She […]

My Knee, My Job & My Journey

These Dang Knees My mind….35ish My Body…. apparently 80-90ish?? My Actual Age….51. 🙄🙄🙄 This past Thursday I had my 8 week post op appointment. My knee is healing well and I’m on track with PT. I go 2-3 times a week for PT, then do about 30 minutes each day at home. PT continues through October. The biggest problem that I am having is my good knee. Or should I just say, my left knee. Do I have a good knee? Going back 8 weeks. I had a cortisone shot in each knee. The very next day my meniscus snapped in my right knee. So, surgery. During surgery they discovered that I had osteoarthritis that did not show in the MRI, so he performed micro fracture surgery. Two weeks after surgery, I had another cortisone shot in the left knee, the good knee. Whatever that means. That lasted about 10 days. My […]

One Year Cancer Free

One year ago today I was sitting in my living room recovering from my Double Mastectomy. I didn’t really think about being Cancer Free that day. I was just thinking about the fact that I no longer had a part of my body. It was months later that I began to recognize August 31st as my Cancer Free Anniversary.  I was pretty drugged up that weekend so I don’t remember much. Here’s what I do remember about the days leading up to it. I know some pretty amazing people. I had friends scheduling meal trains. I had family and friends texting me telling me that everything was going to be okay and that they loved me. I had family and friends constantly asking me what they could do. And the days that followed I had family and friends bring meals, flowers, gifts, come to visit, text me and call me, […]