Health Expert Laura Zigman shares health management news and commentary at HealthCentral.com. HealthCentral.com is one of the top health destinations on the Web, with more than 35 condition-specific, wellness and general health Web properties. http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/8621/index http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/8621/rss self application/xml en-us 15 120 19 http://www.healthcentral.com/images/hc_logo_sm.gif http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/8621/index http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/148118/apologize Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:36:59 -0500 Laura Zigman   There was a piece recently in the New York Times about cancer. This, in and of itself, isn't unusual, since there are many pieces in the New York Times about cancer. What was unusual was what the piece suggested: Cancer should be renamed. Some cancers aren't really cancer, even though they're still called cancer. What?! The minute I read the piece, I knew I had to make one of my circular confusing... http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/148118/apologize http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/29916/breast-cancer Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:19:19 -0400 Laura Zigman I've been feeling terrible lately about not writing any Shareposts.  Until I realized the reason why I haven't been writing any Shareposts:   I've been too busy to think about breast cancer.   Who would have thought the day would ever come that I'd get up, go about my business, and not think about my reconstructed body for most of the day?  Certainly not me.  A year ago, I was still having trouble getting out of a... http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/29916/breast-cancer http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/25829/party Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:16:16 -0400 Laura Zigman A few weeks ago, I was invited to a party.  It wasn't a birthday party, or an anniversary party, or a graduation party.  It wasn't an engagement party,  a baby shower party, a congratulations-on-getting-your-book-published party, or a retirement party.  It wasn't the normal kind of occasion that inspires people to gather, with food and wine and cake, and celebrate.   No, this party was different.  This party was a... http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/25829/party http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/22975/pretty Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:18:00 -0400 Laura Zigman     A few weeks ago my friend who is the publisher of a new division of Random House sent me an amazing book she's publishing: PRETTY IS WHAT CHANGES: Impossible Choices, the Breast Cancer Gene, and How I Defied my Destiny by Jessica Queller.   I opened the book and took a quick look at it, thinking I'd put it aside until I caught up on all the work I'd fallen behind on because of my nipple reconstruction surgery, but the... http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/22975/pretty http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/22142/friend-wendy Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:33:00 -0400 Laura Zigman Everyone should have a Wendy. My Wendy -- Wendy Hurwitz -- is one of those amazing friends who is pathologically helpful. But in a good way. Always there for the emergency school pick-up and playdate (luckily we have boys the same age at the same school, which is how we met). Always there with the information about the field trip you forgot about or the early dismissal day you claim no one ever told you about. Always there to get you... http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/22142/friend-wendy http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/22105/nipple Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:36:00 -0400 Laura Zigman Three weeks ago I had some follow up plastic surgery to the double TRAM flap reconstructive surgery I had almost a year and a half ago: nipple reconstruction procedure, which I could have had four months after my original surgery. When my surgeon suggested I schedule it last March I did, but then I cancelled it. I rescheduled it again for September, but cancelled it again. Despite the fact that it was just a day procedure, I couldn't... http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/22105/nipple http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/20455/cancer Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:22:00 -0500 Laura Zigman I know I'm obsessed with "failure" -- and when I say failure I put quotation marks around it because what I'm obsessed with is not failure but the perception of failure which usually isn't really failure at all -- especially "failure" in connection with having cancer, but what's interesting is that cancer itself is actually a failure. Every disease and chronic condition is a failure of one sort or... http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/20455/cancer http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/20719/lap-track Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:02:00 -0500 Laura Zigman In my last post, I listed 5 ways I felt I'd "failed" during my cancer experience -- which means, since I'm pretty much the same as most women, that most women probably feel like they've failed in similar ways. I'm going to continue, and I invite you all to add your "failures" to the list: 6. Not Leaving The Hospital Fast Enough After SurgeryI wrote an entire SharePost about this so I won't repeat... http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/20719/lap-track http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/20448/track-part-1 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:20:00 -0500 Laura Zigman As I started saying last week, cancer has failure written all over it. More than other diseases, there's something about cancer that makes the patient feel like a complete and utter failure all the time. One of the hardest parts of getting through my experience with breast cancer was trying to assure myself that I wasn't failuring at every single point along the way. Let's review the laps I made around the Failure... http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/20448/track-part-1 http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/20146/failure-term Fri, 08 Feb 2008 09:11:00 -0500 Laura Zigman My post the other day about how it seems women can't win when it comes to deciding on a treatment plan - that we're essentially "failing" at this very early stage of our unplanned journey through Cancerland because we either pick surgery that is overkill (mastectomies over lumpectomies) or underkill (lumpectomies over mastectomies) - reminded me of the book I was working on up until recently. The book was about failure - the... http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/8621/20146/failure-term