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How I Made a Rainy Day a Good Hair Day

I love when it rains, but my hair gets super frizzy

This is a TotalBeauty.com hair care tips article With the rain comes frizzy hair for me, so I tried Herbal Essences None of Your Frizziness Shampoo, $3.99 and I'm curious if a shampoo will really help control my frizz. Read more

I love Sundays because they are usually peaceful, relaxing, and centered around family fun time. Today I feature my friend and colleague Cheryl Rhodes because of her triumph over breast cancer. Please take a moment and read her story below.
***It was the fall of 1994 and I was celebrating my 40th birthday with all of my family members, including my brother who surprised me by flying in from Hawaii; it was awesome! Life was great! I had everything going for me; a wonderful husband, loving children, blessed with having both of my parents still on this earth; I couldn’t be more grateful.

Then a week after my birthday, my life changed dramatically. I went in for my routine mammogram and what happened next changed my life forever. I was told that I had an abnormality on my mammogram and they wanted to do a biopsy. My doctor, herself, called me so I knew it was serious. I had the biopsy and then was told I had breast cancer. I couldn’t believe it. Me. I was healthy, I exercised 5 to 6 days a week, I ate a balanced diet, didn’t smoke or drink, and this still happened to me. I didn’t know why, but I knew I had to face it. I knew I would get through it with my husband and my family by my side.

I chose to have a lumpectomy and radiation for 5-1/2 weeks. I got through it all, tired a little, but ok. My life continued on and I moved on to the next chapter in my life. I thought, ok, this was a set-back, but only a minor one; I had so much more to do with my life, but not really knowing what that really would be until six years later.

In the summer of 1998 I went in to see my OB-GYN because of excessive bleeding during my period. Not knowing what to do, I believed my doctor would. She knew my history of breast cancer, but she still put me on the birth control pill to reduce the heavy flow. I was so naive and uninformed at this point that I took her professional opinion and believed in her.

After three months of being on the pill and getting no relief with the bleeding problem, I stopped on my own. I knew deep down inside that I shouldn’t be on this pill. Six months after taking the pill, I heard the words that I thought I’d never hear again, “your breast cancer has returned.” I felt this was caused by the estrogen that I was receiving through the pill, but of course my doctor said “no” it wasn’t. The reoccurrence was in the same breast and this time, after the biopsy, they found 2+ tumors, again very small; less than 2 cm. My only option was to have a mastectomy. Chemotherapy was lingering in the background, but they couldn’t be sure until after the pathology report came back. The report showed there was a total of four tumors; two of which were infiltrating tumors, but still less than 2 cm which was good. Since they had taken out 15 of my lymph nodes the first go-round and they were clear, I didn’t have to do chemo. I was grateful and thanked God for that.

January 2008 marked my 9th year of recovery from surgery. I’m healthy, happy, and at peace with myself. It has been a long road, but so worth living. I’m blessed with every day I get to spend on this earth and I make the most of each one. I don’t do it perfectly, but I stopped trying that years ago; perfection is so over-rated!! I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and hopefully I’m on the right road!!

In July of 2001, I was invited to attend a presentation from a friend of mine on natural progesterone cream. I was amazed and excited about this alternative. Menopause wasn’t looking so scary anymore. I wanted to learn more and more about the product and its benefits.

One of the reasons I started on the cream was because of what I heard quoted from Dr. John Lee, who wrote the book What Your Doctor May or May Not Tell You About Menopause and his results with his patients. He stated that in his 30+ years of practice, he never had one woman who had a lumpectomy or mastectomy have a reoccurrence of breast cancer after putting her on natural progesterone cream. That was all I needed to hear. I decided to try this awesome product; I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Since using natural progesterone cream my fibrocystic breast has gone away; my moods are much more level; I don’t have any dramatic highs or lows; I’m a much happier person to live with. Ask my family. My complexion is better than it’s ever, ever been in my life. That alone has been a wonderful side effect. I sleep better than I have ever slept before which is such a benefit for me since I don’t function well on interrupted sleep. I don’t have to use my artificial tears anymore with my contacts. I also don’t have heavy periods anymore like I used to have.

The biggest impact for me was when I went to have an MRI Mammography Breast Scan done at AmeriScan in January 2003. It was an awesome experience and I will continue to do this type of screening for breast cancer over a mammogram any day. What a wonderful thing to hear from the doctor, “Your scan shows everything is normal and looks great!” Music to my ears. I actually sat down with him as he explained the pictures of the scan to me. It was amazing! Also, having had reconstruction he could see that there were no leaks in my implant. Yeah!

As I go along in my life, I have a mission to share this information with as many women as I can. It’s something our doctors don’t even know that much about.

Dr. Lee’s book covers the topics of PMS, fibroids, fibrocystic breasts, weight gain, fatigue, endometriosis, irregular or heavy periods, infertility, miscarriage, and other pre-menopausal hormone imbalance symptoms in detail. He also covers the topics of stress, birth control pills, hysterectomy and cancer. Many case histories are included, and Dr. Hanley adds a new dimension to this book by addressing the emotional issues of pre-menopause symptoms as well as the use of herbs and nutritional supplements to treat symptoms.
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Here is some information on the products that helped change and heal Cheryl Rhodes through her journey with breast cancer. Please contact her at 602-828-8844 for more information.

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