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Gina Maisano was single, living alone and knew no one with breast cancer. No one. So
when she got the diagnosis her computer became her lifeline. She found an online support
forum to connect with other women fighting the same battle—but emerged as a leader
of the forum where she went by the name “No Surrender”. She’s gone on to create a
foundation by the same name AND author books… including one on reclaiming your sexuality
after breast cancer. I found out I had breast cancer 3 days before 9/11, I was going in
to New York City to see a specialist on Tuesday morning. I walked into the office building
and right before I opened the door a plane few very low over my head and I remember looking
up and thinking oh that’s very low. By the time I got upstairs to the breast specialist,
the secretary was screaming on the phone, a plane just crashed into the World Trade
Center, I remember thinking these people in those buildings, they didn’t have a chance
to fight and here I am feeling so sorry for myself and I DO have a chance to fight I went
online I found a small group of women who had a support group and they took me in. And
they said This is what’s gonna happen and so as I started to get to know them, a newer
person would come on and I was able to tell her, this is what the lumpectomy felt like
every stage I got to, I was able to help someone new and it started to grow. and I became a
leader of that group. It became a non-profit organization and we
started to raise money to help build awareness, so women would know where to go I was 30 pounds overweight, bloated from steroids,
bald and I still saw myself as a woman. I wanted to be an attractive woman. I wanted
to date and fall in love again. So that’s when I started to write the book. Psychologically
you need to know how to overcome the fears. You live with this fear of a distant cloud
of the cancer coming back. And you have to learn how to cope with that and where to compartmentalize
that. And how to live looking forward and not backwards. how to get your libido back,
how to get over *** dysfunction, how to date, how to deal with your husband how to
deal with what to wear The best compliment I ever get is when someone says to me you
had breast cancer? And I say yeah twice. Did you do chemo? Yeah twice. Did you have, and
they look at your chest. Did you have operations and I had bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction.
Now way! That’s the best compliment! I walked into the city a victim, terrified,
feeling sorry for myself felt like I was the only person in the world, self-centered and
I left a warrior with a mission and no matter what happened to me, I realized I was going
to dedicate my life helping every other woman touched by this disease.