In June 2007, I received a phone call that changed my life.
“Your results came back and you have breast cancer.”
My Diagnosis
Before then I thought I was immune to any major health issues. “It can’t happen to me,” I reasoned. But I was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). Cancer was inside of one of the ducts in my breast and was considered non-invasive.
The diagnosis was overwhelming and was not sinking in. “Oh, no, not me,” I thought. “What about my three young kids?” I tried to continue my errands for the day, driving around in a daze. I was sure this was just a bad dream and I would soon wake up. When I realized it wasn’t a dream, I decided to call my best friend – my husband. I tried to tell him the diagnosis but couldn’t find the words to tell him I had breast cancer. Tears muffled my words and he dropped everything and came straight home. His first words to me were, “I won’t let anything happen to you,” as he held me tightly and reassured me that everything was going to be all right.
The tears continued through all of the doctor visits and throughout the day whenever I had time to think about me. I was still in utter shock. I still couldn’t bring myself to say the words “breast cancer” and “me” in the same sentence. My doctors reassured me that DCIS was not life-threatening and that I would make it through this.
My Purpose
I have no family history of breast cancer or any serious health issues, which leads me to believe that the chemicals in my environment played a role in my developing breast cancer.
Many diseases and health challenges like cancer, asthma, birth defects, and learning disabilities are on the rise, and there is growing evidence that these health problems are linked to the chemicals we are exposed to in our air, water, food, and everyday products.
As a wife and mother of three small children, I was determined to prevent cancer from taking over my life and from affecting theirs. I was determined to educate myself on the steps we could take to live fuller and healthier lives, starting with the foods we eat, and the products and chemicals we used every day.
My Research
After a lumpectomy, lymph node dissection, and weeks of radiation therapy, I began to educate myself to prevent my kids from having this experience in their own lives. I soon discovered that the topic of food safety is too broad to be covered in detail in a format such as mine, and that many other sources of information exist, which do an excellent job of this already. However, there did not seem to be any one source that addressed healthy beauty products. After a lot of research, I have learned about toxins and untested chemicals that surround us daily in our shampoos, deodorants, make-up, etc. I was astonished as I learned our skin is our largest organ. Are you aware of the contents of your current health and beauty products? Are you able to read their labels and determine which products are harmful to you and your daily environment? I wanted to know how all these products were making their way into our bloodstream through our skin. It has not been an easy transition going from aisle to aisle in traditional markets, as well as specialty stores, reading labels, listing ingredients I could hardly pronounce, let alone remember. I needed to be smart as well as price conscious being a family of five.
Much of this you may already know, but at the time I sure didn’t
My Mission
The reason for creating MomtoMomHealth.com is to share what I have learned with others. If it helps just one other family, I will feel blessed that good has come from this experience. Even though I’ve named my mission “Mom to Mom,” my goal is to make this important information accessible to everyone, because it applies to the health of every person in your life and mine.
My goal is to make this web site simple, allowing you to understand product labeling and offer healthy safer products I have researched and used myself. As you browse through Our Products, you will find a variety of companies and products that have been carefully researched and which continue to be evaluated. In some instances, you may find a great shampoo and conditioner with one company, while their shower gel contains toxins. It can be very confusing, but that’s where MomtoMomHealth.com comes in. The homework has been done for you and I have selected personal care products within a variety of categories that have safer, non-toxic ingredients.
Please share your personal experiences with our product selections by writing a brief review on our blog. I will continue to research and share the latest in safer products.
My Goal
I hope this web site can help you begin to make simple changes to your everyday living that will, in turn, lead you and your family to live healthy, safe, and long lives.
By the way, I have since been back every six months for my check-ups (I never realized there were so many oncologists!), and all is good so far!
Please see breastcancer.org – for the latest information in breast cancer research and advocacy.
Thank you to my family and friends for your support and encouraging me to share my experience with others.
My hope is that my web site will educate and empower you to......
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