Billie Bossa Nova

Yikes! I haven’t blogged in a while. Funny that I have less to say when things are going well. Give me a catastrophe or two and I have plenty to say. Anyway, this may be the Year of the Tiger but for me, 2022 has been the Year of the Tooth so far. Shortly before Christmas I cracked an important molar in half, bloody and dangling from my mouth. After a few moments of freaking out and consulting with Blanket, I yanked hard. Ew…….TMI? That set off us on a journey of a thousand dentist trips. Well, maybe 5. There was consulting, discussing, temporary fixes, visits to a root canal specialist, then back to the dentist. It was decided to just extract the sucker and then agonizing (mostly me) about an implant or a bridge. Honestly just couldn’t bring myself to have something implanted in my mouth made out of cow cadaver, so bridge it was and lots of interesting new ways to floss. OMG. You probably enjoyed reading this about as much as I felt going through it, but all is right now.

In other medical news, Blanket and little coconut both had covid for the second Christmas in a row (yes, we are all vaxxed). Tim got his at a wedding, little coconut at a bar crawl. Man, Christmas was quiet around here!!! I did not get it which only seemed right since I nearly died getting the booster–I am a hyper-responder to everything! We celebrated 3 weeks late which was just fine in the end.

It has also been the Year of skin cancer for Tim—a very yucky Mohs Surgery and 45 stitches later………stay out of the sun kids! He still needs to schedule an inner ear surgery—see it isn’t always all about me!

Little man continues to grow and thrive despite our best efforts to keep him a baby. He is going to day care 3 days a week now so less baby-sitting for us but lots of socializing and making friends for him. I highly recommend grandparenthood if you haven’t tried it—all the rewards and little of the headaches. He really is the best!

Hard to believe that I walked in NY Fashion Week 3 years ago! The passage of time is harsh— 8 people from the catwalk have died in these 3 short years. I knew all of them and especially loved 3 of them hard. Everyone deserves love. It weirdly pushes me forward and to fight for more.

I managed to go to Aruba twice this past year despite the pandemic. The first was with little coconut to celebrate her 30th birthday and the second, to celebrate my brother’s retirement (don’t worry, they came too). I can’t say enough about getting away and a change of scenery. It’s important to mark milestones when they happen, the joy of reaching them!!

Regarding work, I was elected Vice President of Metavivor which brings with it a lot of opportunities to get out and talk with people as we start to return a bit to in person events. I have major Zoom fatigue like everyone else. I have been asked to be the Keynote Speaker at the upcoming inaugural Pittsburgh Metsquerade in April. It is bittersweet. The organizers had to postpone the event several times because of the pandemic and in that time, more than a few of the organizers have passed away. Fortunately, their families and loved ones have picked up the banner for them. It is anguishing to lose people every day to a terminal disease where so little money is spent on research. Today I heard of 3 patients that were cured of AIDs. It took them 40 years, but they might have gotten there! I hope we can get there too although all of the pink running and racing hasn’t gotten us there yet.

Also, in my advocacy role I have been asked to speak on a panel in Washington, DC at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging’s Summit on patient access and health disparities. I am representing General Electric’s new imaging tool for Pet Scans, Cerianna, that helps identify ER+ metastasis in MBC patients to assist in choosing treatment (in some cases). More on that next time…..

These activities mean that many women reach out to me regularly with a question or a reason to hope. While I don’t give advice, I give my all to provide support and to be a sounding board. Because of this I try to live my life out loud and as authentically as I can. Recently I tried to reach some rapprochement with another MBC patient over some hard feelings. She wanted none of it. I can’t change that, but it is enough that I tried. We are all so different—so many personalities, political views, faiths, identities. It is not meant that we can please everyone, but I do believe we should act with integrity and honesty in all our relationships, even the hard ones. Love is crazy and hard and complicated.

Speaking of love, next Sunday Blanket and I are off to see Billie Eilish in concert. I have love on the brain. So excited for that! So, I thought it only right to end with one of her songs! Get out there and live a little, it can’t hurt right? Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you! Love from the circus! ❤️