Who am I and why do you care?  I am Gena, a 30 year old middle school teacher with a ton of spunk and pizazz.  

    I was diagnosed with breast cancer on the wonderful day of 9.11.2007.  After interviewing three surgical oncologists I finally went with the awesome Dr. Cocilovo at Georgetown University Hospital. I also knew I wanted immediate reconstruction which leads me to the awesome Dr. Scott Spears as my plastic surgeon whom is also at Georgetown University and amazing.  I love him. 

    I knew going into this I would have a double mastectomy for purely selfish reason as I wanted everything to look the same. Based on all my test results they thought the cancer was on one side and no lymph nodes were involved but I was thinking to myself I do not ever want to be told I have cancer again and I want to leave this situation looking good.  Two sentinel node biopsies later,(ow, this sorta hurt)  a double mastectomy with tissue expanders and a long surgery I woke up.  I went to my follow up and was told it was in one lymph node and they found it in the other breast.  My surgical oncologist said she thought they would not have detected it for 3-4 years.  So what I thought was vanity ended up being one of the best decisions of my life.  

    On to more exciting things, I am a mom to an amazing boy with hopes to have more but chemo might put a stop to that.  For some reason I have been blessed with an awesome attitude and am able to find the positive in the crappiest of situations.  With all that said I still go through the rainbow of emotions.  My attitude helps me to bounce back and start making some lemonade with my life.  Hopefully someone somewhere will benefit from my spunk.  If for some reason this has caught your eye, surf around and hopefully your day will be that much easier or at least for a brief moment a smile will walk across your face.  Keep on rocking and rolling.  I know you can.

The site started as an out for me to talk about breast cancer and where I am in the process and is growing into so much more.  I never thought this could be so therapeutic and major part of my healing process.  The family members have also come to loves this and it helps me keep everyone updated.