›› Fearless Females: Heather Janssen

I have stage IV breast cancer, with mets to the bones, diagnosed May 2008; chemotherapy starting in June 2008--carboplatin, taxotere, herceptin and zometa until November 2008; double mastectomy and oopherectomy in November 2008, radiation  from January until March of 2009.  Daily doses of Femara, and once-every-three weeks infusion of herceptin and zometa. 

I believe story is the most powerful medium of help for anyone, so I share my story. With recently diagnosed women, I keep it to what they ask for--there's often an enormous flood of information and input at the time of diagnosis.  I've accompanied a couple of friends to appointments when their significant others were unable or unwilling to go, and I make referrals to doctors and professionals who I've found helpful.  I also direct women with metastatic breast cancer to Inspire.com, where the forum they've got going over there proves to be incredibly supportive.

In the fall of 2006, years before my diagnosis, I started a literary print magazine called get born: the uncensored voice of motherhood. get born is a literary, primarily print forum for moms and their allies.  We prize truth and the bravery that exposes the underbelly of every stage and phase of motherhood.  [The magazine] started out helping me, because I had a  desperate need to be heard, to speak my truth about motherhood.  When I found I wasn't alone, indeed, that there was a whole group of women breathing a gigantic, collective sigh of relief that someone had broken the silent code, I myself breathed a great sigh of relief that I wasn't alone after all, either.