Coping with Anxiety. 不安と向き合うには
Check this out! For cancer patients, this TED Talk has great contents! The three things Dr. Olivia Remes says help coping anxiety, I found help cancer patients who face a great deal of anxiety. (Photo during my cancer treatments) (日本語は後に）Three things are: To feel that you have the control of your lifeForgive yourselfFind Purpose, feeling that you can contribute to someone
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Awareness of Survivorship 癌サバイバーたちの存在
Coming Soon! It is good to know that there are many cancer survivors out there! (日本語は英語の後に） Recently, I joined a cancer survivorship book project that Marquina Iliev-Piselli has been working on. She had been collecting 40 women's cancer survivorship stories, and (guess what!?) my story made it to the very last addition to the stories.
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5-Year Mark on Breast Cancer! 祝・癌宣告から5年
Today, I marked 5-year since my breast cancer diagnosis! Amazing! (日本語は後に）
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SHARE program 乳癌卵巣がん患者さん向けの冊子
（In Japanese at the end. 日本語は英語の後にあります。） I am on the face of the SHARE ovarian and breast cancer support group's brochure for Winter (January - April program). I did not know how much it helped me to be able to talk to people who had been through breast cancer before me. I hope you will find a comfortable group to talk to. It is such a big relief to know that when I say a couple of words, there are people say "I know what you mean. YES, I have been there."
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Year 2019's Resolution 今年の目標
A happy healthy new year to you. (Japanese at the end: 日本語は英語の後）
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Cancer, Hats, and "To Live" 癌と帽子と「生きる」
I am really excited that my hats are on a musical stage, "Ikiru" in Tokyo, Japan since October 8, 2018, until October 28. This made-in-Japan musical is called "To Live," (or "Ikiru," in Japanese) and it is based on the Akira Kurosawa's same title movie from 1952. It really means a lot to me to be a part of that movie story.
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4th Year Anniversary of My Breast Cancer Diagnosis 宣告から4年目
Today is my 4th year anniversary of my breast cancer diagnosis. For how many more years, will I remember that day so vividly? Probably for awhile!
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After Surgery, Back to Work! 術後、お仕事復活
After 2 weeks of the recovery time, I went back to work. During these recovery days, I had basically no social life, no make-up and no hair-do. Some friends pop-up to check up on me, and that cheered me up! But otherwise, I was getting a low self-esteem over time. So, dressing up brought back my good energy! I really needed that effect from the styling.
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Surgery is coming up. 手術決定。
I decided to have a fibroid removal surgery. It is coming up next week, Wednesday, 8/23, 2017.
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Marking the 3rd anniversary of breast cancer diagnosis 乳がん宣告3年目
Three years ago, today, I received a phone call from a radiologist. My husband also pictures exactly where and what position he heard the terrible news when I picked up the phone that day. I still believe that was not done right that I was told "all three were cancer," and I was not informed of the stage of my cancer. How scared I was, you cannot imagine. The internet information only terrified me, telling me in statistics of "5 year survival rate." When I was completely, I thought, healthy 36 years old. My son was only 8 years old, quickly my wild and worse imagination occupied me and confined me in a darkness. It was hard to breath, I cried for days and months. 日本語は英文の後にあり。 [caption id="attachment_2293" align="alignnone" width="1024"] A beret hat by Hats by Yoko Katz, yes, my design![/caption]
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symposium speaker (in Japanese) success! 乳がんシンポジウムの講師
This past Saturday, April 23, 2017, I was one of three guest speakers at a breast cancer awareness conference held by a non-profit organization, Young Japanese Breast Cancer Network, at a residence of Japanese ambassador in New York. Two other speakers were breast surgeons from New York and Japan, both Japanese, and I was a survivor speaker. My title of the presentation was "my breast cancer treatments story: fashion helped me in my healing process." My story + turban wrapping demonstration in 15 minutes. 日本語表記は、英語表記の後にあり。
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My Weight Again after Chemo 抗がん剤後の体重増加の私
I somehow gained weight about 15 lb more than the most stable weight for many years before cancer. Recently, I had an opportunity to talk to other survivors of my age. All three of us discovered that each individual gained about 15 lb. We are all about 2 years after our last chemo.
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SHARE cancer support group website 米・乳がん卵巣がんサポートグループ ウェブサイト
I am so happy to see the photos from the photo shooting from 3 months ago came out great! I am on SHARE breast and ovarian cancer support group organization's website and it's Fall 2016 brochure. https://www.sharecancersupport.org/ Click and see, I am on the home page!
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PhD Graduation (with My Handmade Gown)! 博士課程 卒業式
I had a PhD graduation ceremony! I am even more officially, well... I had been since February... but, Dr. Yoko! I started the PhD program in 2001, that is 15 years of my work. I am so proud to be able to come this far. Thank you so much for supporting me, my family, friends, colleagues, my blog readers, and my professors. Along the way, I started to teach Economics at US colleges since 2004, got married, had a baby, had been raising my son in bilingual, got breast cancer, completed chemotherapy, finished reconstruction, completed my dissertation and the graduation ceremony was the closing of the PhD program!
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2nd Year Anniversary of Breast Cancer Diagnosis 乳がん告知から2年目
I marked the 2nd year anniversary of the cancer diagnosis on May 19. Today, 2 years ago, it changed me so much.
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