Pick your products

Just like everything else, there are a ton of products that everyone says you HAVE TO HAVE if you have breast cancer.

Let me just say ... No.

Take your time, read reviews, ask your care group or ask someone who's been there because it's hard to know early on what you might need or want.

There are two things I've found really useful.

First, there are the post-lumpectomy bras I got. It's crazy how much some of those things can cost, and the sizes are pretty limited. But I found some that were really affordable. But more importantly, when I looked through the review photos, I saw a woman about my size (both body and boobs), and liked how they fit her.

They're very stretchy and soft. And they open in the front, so when I first had my surgery, I wouldn't have been able to handle back hooks.

Don't get me wrong. They're nothing like my pretty underwire hoisters. They don't hold things in place like my regular bras do. But I can't wear underwire. I can't imagine wanting to right now anyway. The underside of my right breast is hot and sore.

And speaking of sore, from the biopsy to the seed implantation to the surgery to the radiation, my poor breast has been to hell and back. I've had so much pain there from all these procedures.

So when I saw this handmade pillow on a website, I could see it being useful. And it has been.

I have two surgery incisions — one that goes halfway around my nipple and one that is a couple of inches long at the bottom of my armpit. They gave me ice packs that would fit into my bra for the nipple incision. 

But can you see the pocket on the front of this pillow? The idea is to put a small ice pack in that pocket, and adjust the ribbon to fit on your shoulder, and you wear the pillow like an over-the-shoulder pocketbook. It also keeps the skin of your arm away from the skin where the incision is. It's kind of a genius idea.

But lately, my little heart pillow has taken on a new job. It's a great pad between me and my seatbelt. Seatbelts are not comfy on post-surgery areas, and as I'm learning now, they're not comfy on radiation burns, either.

It's a little bulky, but my car is an automatic, so it doesn't get in the way of shifting gears.

And come on, you can't tell me the pattern and colors aren't spirit-lifting. Who wouldn't want multi-colored flower petals to make things better?