Hi Everyone….tomorrow we will have another Zoom chat at 10am….I will post the invite right before the meeting so it is handy for everyone. Hope we get to see you ….we miss you!!
Breast Cancer Meeting on Zoom tonite at 7pm
Sherry Palmer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Sherry Palmer’s Personal Meeting Room
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/6556268741
Meeting ID: 655 626 8741
Password: 071375
Breast Cancer meeting on Zoom
Hi all….tomorrow nite (April 9 Thursday) we will have a meeting via Zoom and see how it goes. I will post the invitation here and also Facebook in the morning….Meeting will be at 7pm tomorrow nite.
Hope you can join us. We miss you all!!!
Breast Cancer update
Good morning everyone!
I am starting to think that this is getting pretty scarey…..then I remembered how we have to live going thru breast cancer treatment…keep a low profile, protect yourself and stay home….just what we have going on now. We did it then, we can do it now!!
As you know our world at Driven by Heart completely revolves around our breast cancer gals….they come in, we help…they become strong and in charge of their own journey and keep going. Quite often at some point they circle back around…to say “Hi”….to volunteer somehow…to bring us something they thought would be helpful we didn’t think of…..or in the case this past week thinking about us and reaching out. One of our gals that had bc several years ago is sewing masks like crazy for anyone that needs them….she made sure Barbie and I had one….bright and colorful….our hearts were touched!!!
Have a great day….be safe…stay healthy….and stay tuned…we are working on a couple of things that will make you smile♥
More on the Breast Cancer Support Story
We started Driven by Heart (Breast Friends of Florida) basically on my dining room table….for several months that is where everything was happening….and believe me when I actually had to use the dining room table for dining, it was quite a situation to get everything moved off from there….it was clear we needed a real place….but….we didn’t have any money. My neighbor suggested I go talk to Harry and Wendy Brandon because they were great folks and loved to help…..true statement!!! I had an appointment with Harry Brandon one day and over I went to see what we could work out. He and Wendy talked it over and very kindly offered a few months rent for free while we got our “fundraising” underway. We had 400 sq ft upstairs, in the back with a window…..we were beyond thrilled. It only took a few months for us to be able to make the rent and to realize we needed more room. Hibiscus Business Center is absolutely a perfect home for Driven by Heart….clearly….because in the last 10 years we have occupied 5 different suites including our current one which is 1800 sq ft!! All of our moves around the two buildings that are Hibiscus Business Center were not without humor….I would see someone was moving out and go peek in the windows to see how much room they had and then to see Wendy and Harry to see if we could move. The last time we moved Wendy smiled when she mentioned “this is the largest suite we have!” It is perfect….we are in the front corner with big windows facing Hibiscus Blvd……yes, perfect!! We even have a conference table now!! We are very proud of everything we have acquired thru hard work and much kindness from Brevard. All of this was going on while we were helping breast cancer gals and adding more to our programs!
Stay safe and keep healthy, looks like we will be at this a while longer.
A little “breast cancer” adventure
Good morning everyone! Please don’t be afraid to comment on my ramblings about breast cancer etc…..as I rewatched the video yesterday I laughed and said to Barbie…it is a “wonder we are all aren’t confused after listening to that!!!” At least it makes for some laughing. I know we are all going a little stir crazy being home so much and I was trying to think about what to write today and I decided to take a left turn and just tell you about something that happened to me when I was going thru chemo.
I started chemo the beginning of December 2008….as much as I thought I had planned to have things done for Christmas in case I wasn’t feeling good…. a few things escaped me. My good friend (and road trip buddy) Deon checked in with me to see if I needed any help to finish my Christmas shopping…..yes, I needed a couple more things…I wanted to go to Cocoa Village to get some infused olive oil for my son in law Manny because he loves to cook…I had to have it. So Deon came and picked me up….off we went….we stopped at Murdocks for lunch (after she told them we needed a table by ourselves so no one got germs on me!! (good friend !)….then slowly we walked to the other end of Cocoa Village to the olive oil store…..why didn’t we drive down there? Hmmmm good question…we still laugh and wonder what we were thinking. We got to the store…I waited on the bench outside while she went in and got our stuff….
So, did I mention that I was also recovering from a bilateral mastectomy and couldn’t carry that huge shopping bag? Deon came out with two bags….now we are sitting there laughing because we (actually she) have to haul those bags all the way back to the car…..which Deon did….we rested at almost every park bench!!! We finally got back to the car and then home….I was exhausted but my heart felt happy because I had a great friend who didn’t mind going to bat for me, keeping the potential germs away and carrying all of my stuff home. So while the whole breast cancer thing is something we would all rather do without, it also brings love and kindness and a new way of sharing those things with your family and friends.
I wanted to help Breast Cancer patients
I wanted to help breast cancer patients….how? I wasn’t sure but I knew there were lots of things that I could have done to make my life easier going thru cancer if only someone had been there to tell me..I was so overwhelmened I could barely think for myself at that time ……so now I had a direction. I just needed to find a plan to follow altho without realizing…I already had a plan to help….I knew first hand what parts needed to be addressed to make this a bit easier to deal with.
There was an organization in Oregon…Breast Friends and they were helping women….one friend at a time…yep, that was what I was thinking….so for the next several years we became known as Breast Friends of Florida….with a plan of helping women all over Florida….pretty ambitious. It became clear that taking care of Brevard was a full time job so we decided to change our name to Driven by Heart and become our own entity…..doing just that….taking care of Brevard. We added programs, changed a few things around but the one thing we have always wanted to do was to make sure no woman has to go thru breast cancer alone!
More tomorrow…….. Have a good nite….stay home, be safe and stay healthy!!!
How did Driven by Heart come to be?
Did you ever wonder how Driven by Heart came to be? Let me share…..September 19, 2008 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Sure wasn’t expecting that…had my mammos every year like clockwork and no breast cancer in my family…..I admit I went along blindly thru my testing etc. The only person I knew that had had breast cancer lived in upstate NY. I had no idea…..I had surgery November 20 with a bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction. I had seen an oncologist so my team was assembled….surgery first and then chemo. I could not find any support groups locally and wasn’t even sure how to find someone who had already been thru this….and I was a little numb from thinking about it. I read on line about women with breast cancer…they talked about ER, PR and such things I had no idea about….but I would learn as I went along. I had a friend I volunteered with at the hospital and he researched everything (and I mean everything!!!) so I had questions to ask each time I went for a treatment… Surgery went fine…..fills went fine….chemo was tough…no one knew about Claritin for the Neulasta shot side effects…that was tough…..so fast forward to being done (11 years on March 31) and I had decided I wanted to volunteer and help gals going thru this because I started out knowing nothing and I was sure I wasn’t the only one. I wanted to help…… more tomorrow.
How are we reaching our patients?
Hi Everyone! We have a plan to reach our patients during this time when we are supposed to be socially distanced etc. If you need to talk to us, just Facetime or Skype. If you are new and need items for surgery etc, we can show you what we have and how it works and then we will deliver that package to your house without any actual contact…..that way no one has to do this breast cancer stuff alone! If you have any additional suggestions or thoughts, please feel free to share. We will do this on Mondays and Wednesdays as long as we can.
Be safe and stay healthy!!
Air hugs to all!
Breast cancer left over???
Good morning! SInce we are all pretty much at home I thought now was a good time to get into the habit of blogging fairly regularly!…..so here we go….a curious thing….I believe there are many things that hang around for years after you are finished with chemo….probably not noted by Docs…probably because we stopped mentioning all of these things not too long after finishing chemo…..but….two days ago I tried yet another new deoderant….all natural etc…it seems for me personally they all quit working after a couple of days..so I rotate several..every so often one of them leaves me with big red tender areas under my arm…..pretty frustrating. I know every ingredient doesn’t work for everyone but pre Chemo I never had any issues with deoderant….now it has been 11 years (in 11 days) that I have been done with Chemo. Just one of the issues that hangs around….how about you all? Anything to report that you didn’t have before?