Former Chicago White Sox manager and shortstop Ozzie Guillen and his wife, Ibis, paid $465,000 in August for a five-bedroom house in southwest suburban Homer Glen. (Rima Odeh)
Congratulations to Prateek Srivastava whose album Nick and Sheila’s Kid debuted at #1 on the iTunes and Amazon comedy charts.
Chicago native Craig Robinson, who played Darryl in The Office among many other roles, hosts The Masked Dancer which premieres Sunday on channel WFLD-channel 32 at 7:00 p.m.
Comedians expressed their support for John Mulaney as he reportedly began rehab for cocaine and alcohol addiction.
Following is a sample of online comedy over the next week. Please confirm all details. New Year’s Eve calendar to come. Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! Wishing you a happy and peaceful holiday!
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24
Joel Chasnoff
Christmas Eve for the Jews 7:00 p.m. Joel Chasnoff hosts Jessica Kirson Moody McCarthy, Ophira Eisenberg, sketch group Comedies Never Win and headliner Mark Normand. This event always sells out in New York and Chicago, but this year it’s all online! VIP upgrades and chats available before the show. Joel was kind enough to talk to me about the show here.
Monday Night Funnies 7:00 p.m. This biweekly show has been the silver lining of 2020. Producers Denise Medina and Mark Klaber put together an unforgettable show with comedians from Chicago and Los Angeles. Jessica Winther’s hilarious MC’ing and quick wit will help you forget everything stressful going on in the world. This show is the perfect 90-minute comedy recharge that we all desperately need. I would stay on all night if they would let me. Free (online) admission, but donations appreciated to a different cause with each show. This week’s show benefits The Actors Fund. Please consider a direct donation to www.actorsfund.org.
Writers of Conan 9:00 p.m. Brian McDaniel hosts Prateek Srivastava, Brian Kiley, Laurie Kilmartin, Lisa Alvarado, Robin Lakin, Taylor Tobin.
Talkin’ Funny 8:00 p.m. Sasha and the Noob are having epic conversations every Tuesday with famous (sometimes infamous) guests. Tonight: Judy Tenuta. Musical guest: Noah Ginex.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30
The Plan 7:00 p.m. Second City’s “Black and white news.”
Godfrey 8:00 p.m. This very funny comedian grew up in Chicago. Stay up to date with Comedians Defying Gravity by typing your email address in the box and clicking the “create subscription” button. My list is completely spam, spam, spam, spam free, and you can opt out at any time.
I’ve been a comedy fan since age four when Moe Howard asked me, “What’s your name, lil’ goil?” Fortuitously somehow by way of Washington, D.C., Poughkeepsie and Jerusalem, I ended up in Chicago, the comedy Mecca of the world where comedians are kind enough to give me their time and where I was lucky enough to meet the great Dobie Maxwell who introduced me to the scene. You can reach me at: [email protected]. (Please remember the “w” there in the middle.)
I am often very reasonably asked, “How DO you pronounce that?” The spelling is Teme, but it’s pronounced Temmy.
When high school basketball fans think back to the 1980s, programs like Quincy, Providence St. Mel, East St. Louis Lincoln and the arrival of city powers King and Simeon are easy to think back on.
The 1990s brought us memorable basketball giants in Peoria Manual and Thornton, a few steamrolling Proviso East teams and the continued dominance of King.
The first 10 years of the 2000s included Glenbrook North, Peoria High and the beginning of a Simeon juggernaut.
Now, with the calendar inching closer to wrapping up an unforgettable 2020, the end of this month closes out another decade. And it’s another high school basketball time period to look back on.
Earlier this year we broke down the decade’s best teams and best players. Now, with every season of the past decade complete, it’s time to look at the Chicago area programs who won the most.
This list is comprised of the 50 winningest programs over the past 10 years, starting with the 2010-11 season and concluding with the 2019-20 season. Every team in every class throughout the Chicago area will be broken down in a variety of ways. But total wins, with winning percentage used as tie-breaker, determined the rankings.
We present No. 39 Brother Rice today and will add one program a day going forward.
39. BROTHER RICE: 188-104
Decade’s biggest storyline: The biggest story of the decade involved the retirement of highly-successful coach Pat Richardson and the hiring of former Rice legend Bobby Frasor.
Richardson raised Brother Rice basketball to an entirely different level and emerged as one of the elite coaches in the state in his 24 years leading the program. Richardson, who stepped down in 2013, won nine Catholic League titles, 11 regional and four sectional championships, over 400 games and reached the Elite Eight once.
Frasor, an all-time Brother Rice great and former McDonald’s All-American who played at North Carolina, came home to take over the program the following year.
Brother Rice’s Alex Majewski makes a move around St. Rita’s Scott Kingsley in 2013.Sun-Times file photo
Underrated decade highlight: Brother Rice made a three-pointer in every single game of the decade. Amazingly, the last time the Crusaders failed to make a three-pointer in a game was Feb. 3, 2002.
Player of the Decade: Marquise Kennedy (2019)
All-Decade Team: Alex Majewski (2013), Quinn Niego (2014), Josh Niego (2017), Mike Shepski (2017) and Marquise Kennedy (2019)
Other decade news and highlights:
-Marquise Kennedy broke the single-season scoring record in 2018-19.
-The 2016-17 team won the Chicago Catholic League South.
-The Crusaders won back-to-back regional titles in 2017 and 2018.
-There were four players in the decade who climbed into the top six all-time leading scorers in Brother Rice history over the course of the decade. Shepski finished as the school’s second all-time leading scorer with 1,388 career points. Majewski finished third all-time with 1,333 career points, Kennedy fifth with 1,290 points in just two seasons and Josh Niego was sixth with 1,174 career points.
The Chicago Bulls laid the mother of all eggs on opening night, getting absolutely drubbed by the Atlanta Hawks. The final was 124-104, and although it might be hard to imagine considering the margin of victory for the Hawks was 20 points, the game wasn’t even THAT close.
In fact, at one point during the game, the Bulls found themselves down a whopping 40 points, 108-68 in the third quarter before Atlanta hit cruise control and mailed it in for the final quarter and change.
It was a giant letdown of a game for a fan base that came into the season very hopeful. Perhaps overall expectations weren’t that high, but with a new coach in Billy Donovan and a top-5 pick in Patrick Williams, along with a more seasoned Coby White and Wendell Carter, and an even more motivated Lauri Markkanen, fans certainly had reasons to be optimistic.
While certainly not the end of the world, it did let a little air out of the balloon. Speaking of being deflated, fans had to feel that way after watching an utterly atrocious defensive effort from the Bulls.
Yes, it was only one game, but they came out of it with a Relative Defensive Rating of 9. What’s more, is all five starters had an overall negative +/- rating for the game, with Markkanen’s -34 the worst of the bunch.
Wendell Carter and Coby White each looked fairly lost on the defensive end for most of the night, which is a serious concern. Although they are getting used to a new system perhaps, they have had their defensive struggles in the past as well, so maybe this isn’t strictly scheme related.
One thing that is clear is that the Bulls will have to strike some kind of balance. Last season, under Jom Boylen, the team emphasized defense to the detriment of the offense. Again, it’s a small sample size of one game but the defense was completely non-existent.
There’s no need to panic yet, as Donovan will surely put an emphasis on defense prior to their next game against the Indiana Pacers on December 26th, but it is definitely something to monitor. Once is a blip, twice is a concern, and three times can be considered a trend. Let’s hope the Bulls nip this one in the bud.
Despite a rough outing, the ChicagoBulls’ season opener is just one game.
It was just one game, and one game is all the Chicago Bulls should treat it as. In their 2020-2021 season opener against the Atlanta Hawks, the Bulls were routed. The final score of 124-104 did not even come close to depicting the full lashing Chicago received, as they were once down by 40 points.
But, for a team under a brand-new head coach, let’s give them some grace. It will take a bit of time before the Bulls get into a groove. Also remember, the Bulls weren’t entering this season with championship aspirations. At this point, if they were to shape up and squeak into the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, this season would be a resounding success.
The Hawks came out on fire in this one and looked as though they couldn’t miss. Atlanta ended up shooting nearly 54 percent from the field, including 40 percent from deep. The Bulls, meanwhile, shot just over 41 percent on the night.
It was a tough first game for the likes of Coby White, whom fans were excited to see after the way he finished last season and how he looked in the preseason. White ended the game with only nine points on 2-for-11 shooting, including just 1-for-7 from three-point range. He did come up with seven assists, though.
In a bit of a surprise, rookie Patrick Williams started the game for Otto Porter, who came off the bench. This was certainly a positive. Williams looked comfortable just as he did in his preseason action. He ended his first regular season game with 16 points, four rebounds, one assists, one steal and one block while shooting 5-for-11 from the field.
Another positive from this one is how Lauri Markkanen looked overall. He only took nine shots but made six of them, as Markkanen finished with 21 points and knocked down 4-of-5 from long distance. If anything, a big takeaway for Markkanen is that on nights like this, he should keep shooting.
This was a rough first game for Chicago, and there’s only one direction they can go from here. It’s going to be difficult for a team to play any worse than seeing a 40-point deficit mid-game.
Billy Donovan should be able to take one major thing away from this game, and it was made clear by his starting center Wendell Carter. after the final buzzer. After the game was over, Carter simply said:
“I feel like tonight, none of us gave it our all.”
Those are pretty blatant and powerful words from a guy who looked lost for much of the game. Donovan has a couple of days to get his guys ready for a December 26th battle against the Indiana Pacers. Just remember, this is one game. It’s time to move on.
My partner died a few weeks ago. Let me clarify, he was a former professional partner, not a personal one. Dave and I spent almost 20 years working side-by-side, or at least office-by-office, part of a threesome in the Pathology Department of HFMC. He welcomed me in when I first started as a very green, eager but naive first-time pathologist. He showed me the ropes, warned me of the pitfalls, and boosted my confidence.
Dave was an Assyrian, of Iranian descent, with the somewhat cosmopolitan air of someone who had spent part of his life in Paris. His position at HFMC was engineered by his cousin, a busy surgeon at the hospital. The place wasn’t the biggest Med Center in the neighborhood and didn’t have the reputation of being the best, but had a loyal core of supportive physicians and satisfied patients. Dave fit into that culture well, and by the time I joined the staff, he was friends with everyone, quick to share a personal joke, a friendly slap on the back, or an obscure memory.
Dave and I frequently strolled the hospital halls together, heading to lunch, or the surgical suite for intra-operative consultations. Every afternoon found time for case review at our multi-headed microscope. With all that togetherness, the medical staff lumped the two of us into one, and we garnered the nickname of The Tweens–someone’s mispronunciation of the word twins.
Dave’s connection with Dr. S, our department chairman, was a less collegial one. Dave never felt the professional relationship with S matched what had lured him to HFMC, and never really fully trusted S. It was only following S’s sudden death that Dave and I both became financial partners in what became our 2 man group. That small group was quickly swallowed up by a large university practice following a hospital coup-d’etat. We were welcomed in as partners, though Dave, ever more cynical than I, whispered to me that our termination was always right around the corner. Ten years later, three years after his own retirement, Dave was proven correct.
Dave was diagnosed with prostate cancer 10 years ago. He gave me the honor of reviewing his pathology slides to confirm the diagnoses, which I sadly did. Dave and Dawn, the love of his life, relocated to Florida, where we visited them twice over the next few years. A few months ago he emailed to tell me he was beginning hospice care, and that he was entering a final phase. Just last week, right after we had sent our annual holiday card to Dave and Dawn, we discovered the obituary.
One of my favorite movie quotes is from The Maltese Falcon–hard-boiled detective Sam Spade discussing the killing of his partner “When a man’s partner is killed, he’s supposed to do something about it.” Dave, you were my partner, but all I can do I can do is write and remember. Your tween will miss you.
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Hi! I am Les, a practicing pathologist living in the North Suburbs and commuting every day to the Western ones. I have lived my entire life in the Chicago area, and have a pretty good feel for the place, its attractions, culture, restaurants and teams. My wife and I are empty-nesters with two adult children and a grandchild. We recently decided to downsize, but just a bit! I will be telling the story of the construction of our new home, but also writing about whatever gets me going on a particular day. Be sure to check out the “About” page to learn more about where we plan to go with this blog!
Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now – Kristoffer Kristofferson
I’m still out there wishing people Merry Christmas, but my words are as empty as Donnie’s promises. They’re like Melania’s smile, never quite making it up to her eyes.
Merry is in short supply this year, rage being the mode of abundance.
Trump’s folks are up in arms and you can’t really blame them. Like mushrooms, they exist on a subsistence of shit fed to them by a propaganda machine designed to keep them angry and in the dark.
How else could you characterize grownups whose opinion of a president is based on that president’s self-evaluation?
I give myself an A plus, he says. 330,000 dead Americans might be of a drastically different opinion.
Trumpsters live in an alternate universe, but when their twisted reality intersects real life, it poses very real danger. Going maskless may be a political statement, but it can also be a death sentence.
130,000 Americans will spend Christmas in hospitals, fighting for each and every breath. Health care workers are stretched to their limits and ICU beds are becoming increasingly unavailable.
What does it say about a nation whose leaders and federally licensed TV outlets are at war with the very measures that safeguard the health and lives of its citizens?
Merriam-Webster dictionary defines SEDITION as incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority.
By spreading lies, making false, baseless accusations and exerting pressure on politicians to help him overturn a free, fair and secure American election, DONNIE TRUMP IS PURPOSEFULLY INCITING RESISTANCE AND INSURRECTION AGAINST LAWFUL AUTHORITY.
That is the source of my rage.
Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Matt Gaetz, Mike Pence and hundreds of other sycophants are all co-conspirators.
It’s easy to see why a neo-Nazi group like the Proud Boys would be willing to fight to keep Trump in power, he is their Hitler.
What of other, run-of-the-mill Trumpsters, though? Are they victims of disinformation or willing participants?
They are so convinced that someone stole an election that it has become a self-perpetuating reality for them.
They can’t grasp that voter fraud on the scale they suggest could only have been perpetrated by a man recognized as the most powerful man in the world, a man with the power of the American presidency.
In this case, TWO of the most powerful men in the world – Trump and Russia’s president for life, Vladimir Putin – couldn’t commandeer this election and it wasn’t for lack of trying.
How could the Democrats do it when they don’t even hold power in the states in question?
Ask your local Trumpster How, if Joe Biden or some evil cabal of Democrats stole a national election, does Mitch McConnell still have a job?
Donnie did not create the surreal, bifurcated world we live in, that distinction would probably go to Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch. Donnie was all too eager though, to manipulate it for the most evil, selfish purposes any of us could have imagined.
America, like all nations, has flaws, but the arc of history crept slowly, sometimes painfully toward a more perfect union.
Donnie, with the help and acquiescence of supplicants and cowards has effectively burnt down the house.
For my New Year’s resolution, I’m going to try to tone down my rage. I just don’t know what we’re going to do with this pile of ashes.
And to all a good night.
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Bob “RJ” Abrams is a political junkie, all-around malcontent and supporter of America’s warriors. After a career path that took him from merchandising at rock concerts to managing rock bands to a 27-year stint in the pits of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, he’s seen our nation from up and down.
As Regional Coordinator of the Warriors’ Watch Riders (a motorcycle support group for the military and their families) Bob plays an active role in our nation’s support of America’s warriors and their families.
Send comments and/or suggestions to [email protected]
I was a whiz at memorizing when I was a boy. Learning came easy thanks to a near-photographic mind. I could literally close my eyes and visualize the pages I had read.
In high school I breezed through my role in the senior play, never dropping a cue. Same ability in college, ace-ing exams by shuffling through my Rolodex brain to pull up the pages of required reading. The knack continued to serve me well throughout my career, speech-making and laying out extemporaneous riffs of poems and pithy quotes.
I don’t know precisely when the memory waned but I can cite the difficulty learning my lines that put a damper on my middle age gig acting in television commercials. It was more annoying than seriously debilitating; I likened it to a sponge for information that was slowly becoming less porous.
Studies show our brains have a harder time with short-term memory because the brain is unable to filter and remove old memories which prevent it from absorbing new ideas. Initially, I didn’t pay much attention to the problem because my work over the past decades didn’t require what I would describe as technological or abstract knowledge.
For the groups and workshops I led, the stories we shared dealt with personal experiences, tapping into heart ache, rather than brain-drain. The curriculum was ‘taught’ through example, my willingness to share personal life stories as distinct from referencing ‘information.’
Enter Covid-19 and social distancing and stay home shutdowns; no physical room, never mind emotional space for warm embraces and a group hug while “Amazing Grace” plays in the foreground. I had to find new purpose for getting out of bed in the morning.
Without personal growth groups and workshops and personal interaction I turned introspective. Sitting in front of the computer I started to roam the world of internet and social media. And an idea formed: I visualized a digital publishing company that curated news for specific demographics, advocacy without confrontation, traditional newspaper journalism tailored for the cyber world. **
I had to learn more than a few new tricks; an entire new vocabulary stood in the way of progress!
Topics like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) became more than a phrase, they were necessary for success. Which led me to SEMrush and Yoast and Uplinks and White Hat/Black Hat… and then there was the email component and Landing Pages and subscription forms and Affiliated marketing programs. I’m absorbing the information slowly. None of it is intuitive; a good deal of it I don’t understand in the slightest. It’s hard to learn. I do the operations over and over, but they elude me.
Those are some of the learning hurdles I’m encountering. But my difficulty in absorbing the information is not the point I’m making. What I’m really learning is how to be kind to myself! When you’ve lived longer than the introduction to the Gettysburg Address, there is only so much energy in the tank.
I’ve changed roles from the hare to the turtle, but I remind myself, I’m not in a race, so it’s okay to bump along. My advice: wrap a scarf around your collar and take a walk while the sun still is showing up. Ink in the cat nap after lunch on the 1:00 to 1:30 time slot on the daily calendar. And if tomorrow and tomorrow turns into continued futility, well then brother, when you’re in a hole, stop digging.
Seek help when it’s needed. When internet tech-speak turns your eyes into pinwheels, take pride in pursuing your intention and sticking to your commitment.
** Check out the progress of the first publication, the “Senior News Daily,” www.seniornewsdaily.com. Feedback welcomed.
In the course of a long business career I held many titles familiar to the corporate world. But as I quickly learned the lofty nameplates no longer apply when your career comes to a close and you move from the corner office to a corner of the den. The challenge was to stay vital and active rather than idling on the sidelines. I had to create a new foundation upon which to build life’s purpose and joy.
I stopped adding up my stock portfolio as a measure of my net worth and developed a healthy self esteem independent of applause from others.
I am the co-author of The In-Sourcing Handbook: Where and How to Find the Happiness You Deserve, a practical guide and instruction manual offering hands-on exercises to help guide readers to experience the transformative shift from simply tolerating life to celebrating life. I also am the author of 73, a popular collection of short stories about America’s growing senior population running the gamut of emotions as they struggle to resist becoming irrelevant in a youth-oriented society.
Harley is a cuddly, affectionate and loyal, three-year-old, 55-pound female tan and white pit bull terrier with hazel eyes looking for a loving guardian.
Harley lived with a man and his other seven-year-old female pit bull. Tragically, the man passed away of a drug overdose this week and his dogs were left to guard his body for days.
We do not know how she would be with cats.
Harley is housebroken, gets along with other dogs when introduced properly, walks well on leash and is quiet enough to live in an apartment.
She loves to be petted and shows her trust by rolling over and letting you rub her belly.
She appears well-behaved with people of all ages and is accustomed to hanging out with family.
Harley is healthy and will be spayed and fully-vetted.
To meet and possibly foster/adopt Harley, please fill in the application at https://friendsofpetraits.com/dog-cat-adoption-application/
and follow up by e-mailing [email protected].
Her adoption fee of $200 benefits the rescued pets Friends of Petraits Rescue.
She is currently all alone in her original apartment in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood.
Here my twin sister and I are with our husbands, halfway through our appointments for the day at Mayo Clinic in Rochester last Friday! We had side-by-side appointments with our plastic surgeon and then I went to my one-year survivorship meeting at the breast clinic while my twin sister went to her 11th chemotherapy infusion of TDM1!
This blog post is the 34th in a series about my (and twin sister’s) preventative breast cancer screening journey that began when we were 30 years old in July 2019. Here is a list of all of the posts written about our journey at Mayo Clinic’s Breast Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, to date. To keep tabs on new posts, sign up for the “A Daily Miracle” email list at this link.
Here are a few highlights (including buying some of the best gluten free donuts in the world from Drift Dough in Rochester, MN), praises, and new prayer requests for us at this moment in time (full details follow in the blog post below)–thank you so much again for your prayers for us as we travel this journey together!:
Praise and prayer request!: My twin sister is 78.6% of the way done with her post-operative chemotherapy regimen of T-DM1/Kadcyla! Her side effects have been minimal, especially compared to what she experienced after her neoadjuvant chemotherapy in 2019 and early 2020. She has headaches and a bit of nausea for about a week after each of her infusions of TDM1, along with corneal cysts that have mysteriously developed and get a bit worse for the week after each infusion. But we’re hoping her microcystic edema will go away after her TDM1 treatment is complete. She can still see, which is a huge praise, and she only has 3 infusions of chemotherapy left! We hope and pray this is the last time she ever has to do chemotherapy EVER!!! 😀 Prayer requests for her would be that her side effects continually improve and are manageable after each of her 3 remaining chemo infusions and that her corneal cysts would miraculously disappear even now!
Praise and prayer request!: My twin sister and I are both “looking good” following appointments with our plastic surgeon, but I have to go back in 3 months instead of 6 months to make sure I’m not developing a “capsular contracture!” Since October 10th, I’ve been experiencing some pain on both sides of my chest, and discovered that could be the result of two things: 1) Nerve regeneration, which is normal for double mastectomy / breast reconstruction patients or 2) The beginning of a “capsular contracture,” which is defined by Mayo as “Scar tissue that distorts the shape of the breast implant.” So, praises are that both my sister and I “look good” and the pain I’ve been experiencing is not a cancer recurrence; and the prayer request is that I’m not developing a capsular contracture!! I’ll have another update on that after my next follow-up appointment on Friday, March 12th.
Spreading Christmas cheer with Drift Dough and homemade toffee
Before we left for our day full of appointments at Mayo Clinic together, we made sure that we brought some holiday cheer with us. We put together “care packages” for our doctors and care teams including homemade toffee (made by our mom and baby sister, who plan to go into business with it soon–stay tuned!!) for all of our doctors. We also gave each of our doctors Christmas cards from our entire family and stopped into Drift Dough, the donut shop with the best gluten free donuts in the world!, to make sure we had donuts for the Mayo Clinic Breast Clinic team and the chemotherapy floor nurses on Gonda 10.
You can preorder donuts from Drift Dough. We highly recommend. 🙂
Here I am all checked in and ready for my plastic surgery follow-up appointment with my husband in the Mayo 12 lobby, donuts in hand!
Plastic surgeon updates!
I was excited to see my plastic surgeon because I have been experiencing some mild pain across my chest since October 10th and wanted to know what that was all about. The way I explained it to my plastic surgeon is that I don’t have any lumps or bumps anywhere, but I do have dull aches and shooting, stinging pains that started on October 10th. These pains alternate between occurring at the surface / skin level to middle-level depth on both right and left sides of my chest from my armpits across to the center of my chest / sternum. The pain is on and off every few days.
So I asked her: Is this something to be concerned about, or just my nerves waking back up?
She said it’s more than likely nerve regeneration–the operation was traumatic to my chest after all as a bunch of my nerves got wrecked and my incisions made me look like Leonardo DiCaprio after he got mauled like the grizzly bear in The Revenant–but that it could be the beginning of a “capsular contracture” and she wanted to see me in three months to check up on that.
Also, she and her resident both said that, to help with the pain if it’s a result of nerve regeneration, you can massage your chest wall by your armpits which is something that helps catalyze nerve regeneration.
Here are me and my husband waiting to see my plastic surgery doctor at Mayo Clinic right next door to where my sister was meeting with her first!
I also told her that I’ve been experiencing some fatigue that comes and goes along with some brain fog, but that it’s better than it was earlier this year. I asked her if she knew what exactly is going on and she said that she’s not entirely sure but there is some academic literature that says general anesthesia can change your EEG brain waves but that is mostly a short term effect that should be better after a year.
“I’m looking for an excuse for why I’m tired and feel like my brain is moving slowly all the time and you’re not giving me anything!” I joked.
“You don’t seem like a complainer to me!” she said. “Besides those studies, I’m not really sure what to tell you about the fatigue. Usually with patients who just have surgery a year out, they’re fine. Also, there’s a lot that’s gone on this year with you: First, your surgery; then your sister’s surgery, and you’re worried about her treatments…”
“Who says I’m worried?!!” I interrupted.
“Ha, ha. I’m sure you’re worried.” she smiled.
“Yes, I’ve been worried.” I said.
“So there’s that, then there’s COVID,” she said. “This year has been terrible. There’s a lot going on.”
That was all very true and so I took her advice to heart. My fatigue is very likely due to environmental and emotional factors. So I decided I’m going to be more kind to myself and take plenty of time to rest in the healing process. That’s a reminder and a reality that’s been very hard for me to handle.
Our plastic surgeon also loved her toffee!!:
“You’re so sweet! I will be sure to share with everyone!,” she said.
“You don’t have to share if you don’t want to!,” I said.
She turned to her resident and nurse and said:
“Did you hear that, guys? I’m not sharing!”
She closed the appointment by saying: “I was going to graduate you today, but due to the pain you’re describing and have been experiencing, I want you to come back in 3 months to make sure you aren’t developing the beginning of a capsular contracture. If you are, it will feel tight, and there will be pain, so keep an eye out for any tightness or hardening of the implant and I’ll see you in 3 months!”
Here is my twin sister and her husband at her 6-month plastic surgery follow-up!
My twin sister’s plastic surgeon updates
My twin sister had her plastic surgery update next door to me and she had a great appointment, too! There was a small bump protruding from her implant on her left side and she found out that was because sometimes the implant protrudes out following the surgery from underneath the alloderm, also known as the repurposed cadaver skin that holds our implants in place.
It’s not painful for her, so that’s good, and the only times you can see it is when she raises her arms above her head, which isn’t a huge deal! She’ll just plan to go back with me again on Friday March 12th for her one-year post-operative appointment! She will also go back (like me :)) in 5 years for a checkin to see if it’s time to get new implants!
Here is my twin sister and her husband all checked in for her 6-month plastic surgery follow up appointment on Mayo 12 in Rochester!
My one-year survivorship appointment at Mayo Clinic’s Breast Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota
I was beyond excited to see my primary care doctor at the Breast Clinic, mostly because she was the one I was matched up with when this journey all started in August 2019 and she’s been AMAZING in “quarterbacking” my care team in addition to providing us with excellent care and answers to all of our questions along the way. She took on both of my sisters as patients in the months following my initial visit, too, so it’s become a family affair!
It had been a year since I’d last seen her, so we caught up about what all has unfolded in 2020 so far and she made sure to do a thorough physical examination. We talked about the pains I’ve been experiencing across my chest, and she agreed that it’s probably nerve regeneration. She also agreed it was a good idea to come back and see my plastic surgeon again in three months to address / evaluate any risk of “capsular contracture” that I’d also discussed with my plastic surgeon.
In the meantime, she said she was not able to find any signs of capsular contracture on my physical exam, which is great!
The best line of my entire post-visit note file was definitely this: “Certainly no indication of local or distant recurrence of her disease.”
Woo!!! I’ve made it to one year cancer free!! This is SUCH a relief especially considering recurrence of breast cancer especially in young women tends to happen within the first five years. Take that, breast cancer!!!
Because it had been a year since I’d seen her, I had a list of questions. Here they are:
Here my twin sister and I are all checked in for my one-year survivorship meeting with my primary breast clinic doctor and my twin sister for her chemotherapy appointments upstairs!
Q: My first question is about recurrence: Given I was only 30 when I was diagnosed with DCIS, what are the chances it will come back eventually? What are my risk factors and how can I minimize my chances of it never coming back in my entire life?
A: We have your recurrence rate the lowest we can get it with a bilateral mastectomy. Also, stay active. And sleep is important.
A: I do not have concerns over prenatal vitamins or supplements for you. Pregnancy itself does cause a higher estrogen state, so your risk of recurrence is slightly higher that time. But we’ll keep a close eye on you.
A: So, there are three different stages of early onset menopause: Before age 40, ages 40-44, and 45+. If you can make it to age 40, and then keep a close eye on things through ultrasounds and CA-125 levels until your mid-40s, that’s best case scenario. Otherwise you start to see, with your ovaries removed before age 40, an increased risk of early onset dementia, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular problems. BRCA1 patients are often recommended to get their ovaries removed between the ages of 30 and 35, which is super early, but is doable because usually we can give you hormones / estrogen to offset the effects of that early ovary removal. But because of your early breast cancer being estrogen positive, I would hesitate to give you estrogen of any kind. So those are things to consider.
More genetic testing???
One other thing my doctor suggested is that, genetically, me, my mom, and twin sister could get our entire genome sequenced to see where there are tweaks anywhere to signify why we got breast cancer so early.
“Who knows, maybe they’ll even find a new high risk breast cancer gene!,” my doctor said.
“Then we can name it after ourselves! Or, after you! Because you’ve been quarterbacking this whole thing!” I said.
“I’m not sure about that,” she laughed.
It was so awesome to see her, because I’m still convinced she’s the best doctor in the universe. 🙂 I’ll go back to see her in June 2021 for my 18 month Survivorship Consult!
While I was at my one-year survivorship appointment / clinical exam with my primary breast clinic doctor, my twin sister was up on Gonda 10 getting her 11th infusion of T-DM1 / Kadcyla!
My twin sister’s 11th infusion of T-DM1 / Kadcyla!
My twin sister knocked out her 11th infusion of T-DM1/Kadcyla like the champion that she is!!! She brought Drift Dough for all of her chemotherapy nurses and they were SO excited because it turns out most of the chemo nurses and techs are gluten free!!
Her favorite chemo nurse was working and said to my sister and her husband, “Hey, it’s two of my favorite people!!!” They had a great conversation about how everyone is attempting to keep their heads above water during COVID-19 and how everyone is looking for silver linings.
It makes me smile to know everyone there makes her smile. I’m SO thankful she and her husband have been able to continue her chemotherapy regimens at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota!!!
I’m also thankful her side effects after T-DM1 / Kadcyla have been minimal compared to her infusions of TCHP last year and into early 2020. She has some nausea and fatigue and headaches the week following the infusions of T-DM1 but all in all is doing excellently. We continue to praise God as our great Physician and Healer!
Trusting God in the midst of trials
Last weekend at church our pastor preached a sermon about God’s love for us. Given it’s Christmas this week, it’s fitting that he would do that, but the main point of the sermon was that, while we were helpless, God sent His Son to save us (1 John 4). Our pastor’s emphasis on the word helpless hadn’t stuck with me before, but last weekend, it did. It came on the heels of a devotional from YouVersion I heard this week that focused on Philippians 4. That devotional reminded me that God is with us within trials, not just in spite of them:
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Paul wrote the letter of Philippians in chains in jail, and he was able to tell us to rejoice anyway. As I’ve written before, going through breast cancer has rendered me more helpless than I’ve ever been in my life. I’ve never experienced anything like being told I had breast cancer and that surgery would be necessary to save my life. Or hearing that my twin sister had breast cancer, too, and that she’d need chemotherapy AND surgery to save her life. Not to mention how terrifying it is to go into a surgery trusting a room full of doctors, surgeons, and technicians with my life and trusting and believing I’d wake up cancer free.
I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t difficult to trust that I’ll remain cancer free for the rest of my life–and that, if the cancer does come back, that I’ll trust God anyway. That’s a challenge I’m seeking the Lord’s strength to overcome: That the Lord would provide me with His joy and strength that would cast out any doubt and unbelief no matter what circumstances I might face in years to come!!!
Just like the verse from Isaiah 12:2 I put in above–which was the daily YouVersion devotional the day we went to Mayo Clinic last week–we don’t need to be afraid! Anytime I start to doubt God’s faithfulness I simply remember all that He’s delivered me and my twin sister and my baby sister from over the past 18 months :)) That’s been a good place to start :))
We went to Mayo one week before Christmas Day so it only makes sense we’d put a Santa hat on the Mayo Brothers for our photograph with them outside the Gonda Building!! We are so grateful for our loving and supporting husbands who drive us to our appointments and stay with us through our appointments with all of our doctors!!!
Next steps
I’m SO grateful for the “great cloud of witnesses” that has surrounded us on our breast cancer journey so far. So many people have come alongside us to encourage us, support us, and are praying for us daily! I’m also grateful for God’s faithfulness throughout this entire journey. His strength has truly become our song, and his joy is our strength within that.
Silver linings of our journey so far include that my twin sister and I both have been able to identify more with Christ’s sufferings more than we’ve ever been able to in our lives. The Bible study we just went through with a group of women at our church in the Book of James was especially encouraging as we were reminded that we are commanded to consider it “pure joy” whenever we face trials of many kinds, including breast cancer–because we know that “the testing of our faith produces perseverance” (James 1:2-4).
Here are some things coming up on the docket that we’d love prayer for and are looking forward to in 2021!:
Friday, January 8th: My twin sister’s 12th infusion of T-DM1 at Mayo Clinic Rochester
Wednesday, January 13th: My baby sister’s second MRI as part of her baseline preventative breast cancer screening
Friday, January 29th: My twin sister’s 13th infusion of T-DM1 at Mayo Clinic Rochester
Friday, February 19th: MY TWIN SISTER’S LAST INFUSION OF T-DM1 at Mayo Clinic Rochester!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, March 8th: Dermatology appointment to remove and test a “mildly atypical” spot on her back (the dermatologist doesn’t think it’s cancer but just wants to make sure!)
Friday, March 12th: My follow-up with my plastic surgeon to ensure that I’m continuing to heal properly and there are no signs of capsular contracture; my twin sister’s one-year follow-up with her plastic surgeon!
Thank you so much for your continued prayers for our health and healing, and for my baby sister’s preventative breast cancer screening journey!!
God is good!!!
This blog post is the 34th in a series about my (and twin sister’s) preventative breast cancer screening journey that began when we were 30 years old in July 2019. Here is a list of all of the posts written about our journey at Mayo Clinic’s Breast Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, to date. To keep tabs on new posts, sign up for the “A Daily Miracle” email list at this link.
Sister Christian is a blogger, reporter, editor and follower of Jesus Christ seeking to find little miracles each and every day. She especially loves finding Jesus in art, music and culture. Learn more about her on Twitter @adailymiracle, and on Facebook as “A Daily Miracle.” Send an email to [email protected] with any comments, concerns or suggestions!
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January 17, 2020 at 12:00 am