Toddler Planet

It was on July 27, 2007 that Susan, aka Why­Mommy, pub­lished a post at Tod­dler Planet that would for­ever change the blo­gos­phere for the bet­ter. On that date, she asked blog­gers every­where to post her words in order to edu­cate their read­ers about the dan­ger signs of can­cer and urge them to con­sult their physi­cian if they rec­og­nize any of the symp­toms men­tioned. The goal was sim­ple: To save lives. The pre­vi­ous month, she had been diag­nosed with inflam­ma­tory breast can­cer but Why­Mommy declared that she was “not ready to move on.” And the blo­gos­phere was not ready to let her.

So Team Why­Mommy was born to cheer Why­Mommy on as she bat­tled for her life in order to con­tinue being a wife to Won­der­Daddy and mother to two adorable lit­tle boys, Wid­get and Lit­tle Bear.

And fight she did, blog­ging about the details as thou­sands of read­ers fol­lowed her jour­ney, will­ing her to heal. When she received bad news from her doc­tors or suf­fered set­backs, she shared her feel­ings with her read­ers who rejoiced with her when she let us us glimpse her happy life with her fam­ily.  She put it all into per­spec­tive the day she vis­ited her doc­tor about the ongo­ing pain she was expe­ri­enc­ing in her back, focus­ing on the fact that she “is the mother of two boys:”

“What can I do about the pain?” I asked. I didn’t want pain meds. Didn’t want injec­tions. But I didn’t nec­es­sar­ily want to be in this over­whelm­ing pain any­more either.

“Do the exer­cises,” he said, “and your back will get stronger. Come back and see me, and I’ll put the rib back in. In the mean­time, walk, rest, and you can try to lie down on your back with a ten­nis ball — or a rac­quet­ball, some­thing small like that, but not as hard —

I can han­dle that. I def­i­nitely know where to find balls like that.

I am the mother of two boys.

And so, after a quick stop for a pint of ice cream and some peanuts in the shell as a treat for my babies, I came home, told the fam­ily, and then tried to get past it.

Laugh­ing, run­ning, danc­ing on the new kitchen floor, we raced away, hand in hand, capes draped around our shoul­ders like superheros.

And, quickly, I for­got my dis­ap­point­ments and began again to count my blessings.

I am the mother of two boys.

The Post of the Day Award is bestowed upon Susan in cel­e­bra­tion of the fact that she has reached a mile­stone. It is now One Year Later.

One year after my surgery, I am whole again. Still.

One year passed since my dou­ble mas­tec­tomy; my body is heal­ing and becom­ing stronger every day.

One year after the last can­cer left my body, I go days with­out obsess­ing about what may come.

One year later, I am not look­ing back, but look­ing forward.

Susan is grate­ful for her restored health, and delighted to again be work­ing, rais­ing her sons, and enjoy­ing activ­i­ties that able-bodied peo­ple who have never sur­vived a seri­ous health scare take for granted. She is savor­ing the nor­malcy of her family’s life and their mun­dane, every­day activ­i­ties in a way that only some­one who has fought for their life can.

As to the one-year anniver­sary of her surgery, she observed:

It was just another day.

And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?

Real­iz­ing that it’s impos­si­ble to live each day as if it were your last. Just liv­ing. Every. day.

And real­iz­ing how lucky we are to have today.

Indeed we are.

Susan, con­grat­u­la­tions and thank you for rais­ing aware­ness about inflam­ma­tory breast can­cer, shar­ing and allow­ing read­ers to ben­e­fit from your expe­ri­ences, and serv­ing as an ongo­ing reminder to all who encounter your site about what mat­ters most.

Two happy lit­tle boys called Wid­get and Lit­tle Bear jump­ing on a bed.

Tech­no­rati Tags: Post of the Day Award, Team Why­Mommy, The Ris­ing Blog­ger, Tod­dler Planet

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