Book Releases

Holding On (Colorado High Country #6) —
The Colorado High Country series returns with Conrad and Kenzie's story.

A hero barely holding on…

Harrison Conrad returned to Scarlet Springs from Nepal, the sole survivor of a freak accident on Mt. Everest. Shattered and grieving for his friends, he vows never to climb again and retreats into a bottle of whiskey—until Kenzie Morgan shows up at his door with a tiny puppy asking for his help. He’s the last person in the world she should ask to foster this little furball. He’s barely capable of managing his own life right now, let alone caring for a helpless, adorable, fluffy puppy. But Conrad has always had a thing for Kenzie with her bright smile and sweet curves. One look into her pleading blue eyes, and he can’t say no.

The woman who won’t let him fall…

Kenzie Morgan’s life went to the dogs years ago. A successful search dog trainer and kennel owner, she gets her fill of adventure volunteering for the Rocky Mountain Search & Rescue Team. The only thing missing from her busy life is love. It’s not easy finding Mr. Right in a small mountain town, especially when she’s unwilling to date climbers. She long ago swore never again to fall for a guy who might one day leave her for a rock. When Conrad returns from a climbing trip haunted by the catastrophe that killed his best friend, Kenzie can see he’s hurting and wants to help. She just might have the perfect way to bring him back to the world of the living. But friendship quickly turns into something more—and now she’s risking her heart to heal his.

In ebook and soon in print!


About Me

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I grew up in Colorado at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, then lived in Denmark and traveled throughout Europe before coming back to Colorado. I have two adult sons, whom I cherish. I started my writing career as a columnist and investigative reporter and eventually became the first woman editor of two different papers. Along the way, my team and I won numerous state and several national awards, including the National Journalism Award for Public Service. In 2011, I was awarded the Keeper of the Flame Lifetime Achievement Award for Journalism. Now I write historical romance and contemporary romantic suspense.

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Seductive Musings

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

One year later




One year ago today, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

I’d felt a lump several months earlier and had gone to my doctor for no fewer than three breast exams, only to be told that the lump felt like normal fibro-cystic tissue to her. I felt safe. I shouldn't have.

When I got the call that they had some concerns about my annual mammogram, I got a knot in my stomach that wouldn't go away. It has never gone away.

Everyone tried to be encouraging. I tried to encourage myself. It’s probably nothing, we all said.

On April 21, I went in for a series of diagnostic mammograms. The radiologist showed me an outline of several white dots in the shape of a C. They could be calcifications, he said, but they could also be cancer. Several more films were taken, and then I was led to another room for an ultrasound with a glum-faced woman who could tell me nothing.

The radiologist walked in, pushed the curtain aside and said, “It looks like you have a small, early breast cancer."

And my life changed.

~ ~ ~ 

As it turned out, I had stage 1C estrogen positive/progesterone positive breast cancer that was Herc2 negative. But I didn’t get to learn the nature of what I was facing until 45 days after my diagnosis, when I finally had surgery.

 The wait was agonizing and was made more agonizing by idiots. The “patient coordinator,” an RN, told me she thought I was probably looking at Stage 2. (Apparently, she has a crystal ball.) I looked at survival rates and prayed that it wouldn't be worse than that. I tried to remind myself that the only person who’d seen the tumor was the radiologist, and he’d actually used the term Stage 1 during our conversation.

I opted to have a bilateral mastectomy despite the huge loss it would cause to my sexual self and my sense of femininity because I never, ever wanted to go through the whole mammogram routine again. I never wanted to wait and wonder. I never wanted to give this disease another chance at me.

The mastectomy revealed that there was a 1mm micro-metastases in a single lymph node. In the past, they didn't used to catch these. Now they do. What micro-metastases mean medically, no one knows. Now the question became chemo or no chemo.

It was an agonizing question, one that hung largely on the outcome of the OncoDX score of my tumor. This genetic test has become a guiding tool for oncologists. It is helpful in determining a patient's risk for recurrence. Patients with tumors with a score under 19 statistically speaking don't get much benefit from chemotherapy and tend to do just as well with Tamoxifen only. My OncoDX was 12.

But there was that micro-met to consider. And no one on my medical team knew what to say about that.

Ultimately, it was my decision. It sucked that there really was so little guidance. There simply hasn't been enough research on micro-mets to determine what they mean. They are significantly different from full-on macro-metastases. That much everyone knows. But what it means in terms of recurrence risk... There just isn't enough research.

I opted for chemo and radiation, feeling that I had this one chance to eradicate this illness and move forward with my life cancer free.

Chemo was tough. Losing my hair was even more painful than losing my breasts.

Radiation was less uncomfortable than chemo, at least until the end, but it was intensely dehumanizing, an experience made worse by an asshat of a radiologist who has apparently used up his lifetime allotment of medical compassion.

Treatment made it impossible to write. I watched a lot of Netflix and slept. I spent most of 2014 simply trying to get through cancer treatment.

My last day of radiation was Dec. 9. I ended up with painful blisters and needed morphine to control the pain.

My body is still healing.

~ ~ ~ 

So how did my life change?

It changed entirely for the worse. Unlike the occasional happy celebrity who goes on TV to talk about how cancer was a hidden blessing, I’m here to say it sucked. 

I used to have breasts. Now I have enormous scars. The scars tingle and hurt sometimes — phantom nerve pain from what is truly an amputation. I've permanently lost all sexual sensitivity together with the beauty of breasts. I might be able to get some kind of breast-shaped blobs through fat transplants and such sometime later this year, but they won't be breasts. They will have little to no feeling, and what feeling they do have won't be sexual —  that super sexy tug deep in the belly that sensitive nipples can give a woman.

Now I get to write about it, but I will never, ever feel it again.

I have short hair. Most people blow this off. But I'd had long hair most of my adult life and do not care for short hair at all. To lose my breasts and my hair — it made me feel like a thing, my femininity completely stripped away.

I grieve still. I grieve for the permanent loss of my breasts and that precious element of my sexuality. I grieve for the very long hair that will take years to regrow. I grieve for the more carefree version of myself, the one who hadn’t yet heard the words, “It looks like you have breast cancer.” I grieve for he version of myself that could think about the future without wondering, “Will I make it that long?"

My writing career was put on hold at a time when I suddenly needed money more than ever. Despite having good health insurance, I spent more than $10,000 out of pocket on treatment last year. So, hey, it helped me get rid of some extra cash, too. Now, I'm playing catchup with my own career.

The life I have now seems completely different than the one that I lived before April 21, 2014. I am different. I won’t ever be the same. My life will never be the same.

And yet I am deeply grateful to be alive. But more on that in a minute. I'm getting ahead of myself.

~ ~ ~

I think of 2014 as a year of shit. I would never want to relive it. I'm glad it’s over.

During treatment, I wrestled with a range of emotions from rage to fear to overwhelming sadness. Of course, the world has difficulty with honest feelings about anything, especially something as frightening to most people as cancer. A great many people reached out to support me. For that, I will always be grateful.

But there were also people who offered unsolicited advice — people who didn’t have cancer but who felt they ought to tell me how to deal with it. Some thumped bibles in my face. To them I said, no, cancer was not God’s will for me, nor was it part of any divine plan for my life. Others suggested unproven treatments and nutty cures. The most common bit of irritating advice was, “Stay positive.” YOU stay positive when you get cancer. I'll feel what I feel if that’s alright with you.

(Hint: Don't give advice to people who are enduring something you yourself haven’t had to face.)

Allow me to summarize: Fuck, no, cancer was not God’s will for my life. I find that idea extremely offensive and disgusting. It wasn't a blessing, nor is it part of any divine plan. And screw being positive.

When life gets real, people, it is all right to have real feelings.


~ ~ ~

Yes, I am deeply grateful to be alive.

I’m glad the tumor was found during that mammogram. Had I failed to get screened last year, my prognosis this year would be much worse. I have a 90 percent chance of having beat this disease, and I’m grateful for that, as well.

I’m grateful for the help my mother, sister and son Benjamin gave me in dealing with the day-to-day struggles of coping with treatment. They were champions for me.

I'm grateful for my fellow authors, readers, and friends who helped put together the Good Food Fund — thank you Thea Harrison — and those who contributed to the expense of my medical costs.

I am grateful for my medical oncologist and the other medical staff who helped save my life.

I am grateful for the hundreds of cards I received from readers from around the world and the amazing and sweet gifts that so many people sent to try to cheer me and bring me some comfort. I read every single one.

So, yes, amid the grief, I do feel gratitude as well.

~ ~ ~

I came away from the physical misery of treatment and the fear that comes with living with cancer feeling an intense desire to put last year behind me and do the best I could to live a rich and full life.

I'm less grumpy about day-to-day challenges than I was before. A normal, boring day is fine with me. I’ve gained an appreciation for the small moments in life—and an acute awareness that life will end for most of us sooner than we wish it would.

I’m starting an oil painting class next Monday — part of a promise I made to myself.

Most of all, I am writing again. It hasn't all been easy. I cried my eyes out when I came to the first sex scene and wrote about the hero licking and kissing the heroine’s nipples. That has proven to be very, very hard and may eventually mean that I quit writing romantic fiction. (Yes, I'm serious.)

I’m six months out of chemo, and I’ve written most of a novel, lost the chemo pounds, gotten fit enough to walk 3.5 miles an hour (which I haven't been doing daily despite a real need to do so), and am making a point of spending more time with my family, even when I’m in the middle of a novel.

I hope to get reconstruction sometime this year. There’s an issue of timing and then there’s the expense — an estimated $6,000 with insurance coverage. But, hey, that’s American health care for you.

I am living my life again despite the grief, and that’s the best way I can think of to say “Fuck you!" to cancer. My heart, like my body, will never be whole again. But I am living.

If that’s not the positive, inspiring message you were hoping for, then think of it as a glimpse into how terrible breast cancer really is.

We need a cure.









8 comments:

landin said...

Beautifully, and so honestly, written. You're bravery and strength in your entire journey has been inspiring. But I am so sorry they you had to go through such a painful journey,and I truly hope and pray that things will get easier from here for you.

As sad as I would be to see you quit writing romance, as I truly believe you are one of the best out there, I would completely understand and respect your decision. life is full of so many hardships and pain, if choosing to write in a different genre brings you a bit more peace then I fully support it!

*love and virtual hugs*

Rhiannon said...

Pam,

I know I wrote a note to you not long back about my experience with this bs too. Just to recall your memory, I had 9 surgeries. I feel the same way you do about the god stuff, screw that, you'd think a god wouldn't want people to suffer like this. I was told I had cancer a little over 2 years ago. I did not have to have rads, but had the double mastectomy, the chemo and in December I had a total hysterectomy. So not only am I dealing with all the side and after effects of cancer surgery and chemo now I am dealing with my hormones being screwed up, hot flashes and acne galore. I have gained more weight instead of losing the chemo pounds. I hate my hair, its so curly and grey now and I am only 37. I hate that I do not have breasts, that my chest hurts all time, that I have fluid that builds up in it and hurts. I am with you on missing my nipples... I loved having them played with during sex.

On top of all this, my idiot husband decided to do some really stupid shit and I HAD to leave him for my sake and the sake of my children. I had been a stay at home mom for 18+ years. So, now I am living in public housing, on food stamps. I am tired every day, I still have insomnia and memory loss and wonder why anyone will even think about hiring me... I didn't go to college so my best chance at a job will be a minimum wage place that I will probably not be able to handle physically or mentally. Now that I am getting ready to get divorced, I wonder why would any man ever be interested in me.... I am overweight, have no breasts, more than likely sex will be painful, I've heard it can be after a hysterectomy. The chemo has also screwed up my teeth, so they don't look so nice (though they will tell you that chemo does not affect your teeth health)...why would any man choose to take a look at me. Yes I am a nice, good person but relationships don't begin on your personality you are judged first on your looks.

Proud of you for getting out there and doing the things you want to do now... I hope to get those bucket list things done too if my life ever gets back on some sort of normal track. Fuck Cancer!!!

Thank you for your so very honest article. Thank you for saying that it is NOT God's will that anyone suffers. Thank you for not putting a happy smiley face on what you went through. I am so happy you are still with us. Be happy, stay healthy
Jeannie

Stella said...

Kære søde Pam
Det stikker dybt i hjertet at læse og prøve at forstå al den smerte du har været igennem og stadig oplever.
Jeg håber inderligt at 2015 bringer glæde og lys ind i dit liv.
Knus og kram
Stella

Anonymous said...

My English is very bad I have to admit , but what matters is that bad or not , tell you what I've always wanted to write .

You're a strong woman and a fighter who has overcome a terrible stage in life . I did not have cancer, but my grandmother did , and how difficult and disastrous it can be, and yet not give me the imagination to think what can feel and you have to support the person who has the disease.

But you, even in your moments of anger or discouragement by the disease you have decided to move forward and that makes you a CHAMPION . Lost something that is precious to you, your breasts (although it is also the treasure of all women ) your hair , yes, but those are small sacrifices that sometimes touches do to stay alive , but eventually possibly can recover, ¿ worse would never recover , no?

To the idiots who said what happened to you is God ... that are dealt with urgently psychologist , God never punishes his children with illnesses or problems, those are things that just happen , God is always to give sorry forces when decay and is always to get up at your worst , ever leave you to smash with a sickness, sorrow or pain.

Many times we do not know why things happen , they just happen and it is our part not to give up and move forward.

You are a great woman , a fighter and admirable , you are an excellent writer , as a faithful yours reader, it would hurt and sadden you stop writing romance novels, but I'm also a sympathetic reader, and it is you do not write more novels of this genre as well , welcome are the new novels you want to offer. Your gift of writer anus just have to focus on romance novels.

I hope you can understand all the little words I have written to you , and you gift is song (it's in Spanish , but English lyrics leave ) , so you never lose faith in God and keep being an overcomer .

XOXO.

~~~~

I've seen the pain close to me
Cause me injury, beating well
And to come to wonder where were you .
I have asked questions in my affliction
Looking for answers unanswered
And even hesitate for moments of your compassion .
And I learned that everything in life has a meaning,
And I discovered that everything
works for good .

And in the end will be
Much better things to come
It is part of a purpose
And all good will .
You've always been here
Your word has not failed
And you never left me
Rest my trust on you .

I have been between a rock and a hard place
Surrounded by insomnia without knowing what to do ,
Crying , your intervention.
Sometimes you told me once
In other your silence just listen
How interesting , the way you respond
And I learned that what happens under the sky
You know that everything has a reason ... .

And in the end will be
Much better things to come
It is part of a purpose
And all good will .
You've always been here
Your word has not failed
And you never left me
Rest my trust on you .

:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKJ8GD8KefU

All I can say is, thank you, Pamela, for your words and honesty. We do need a cure. Cancer is insidious, creepy, creeping, scary. One of our daughters just passed her fifth year following a radical mastectomy and removal of all lymph nodes. She was at stage four before her surgeries (a dozen!) and several infections following...but is now still cancer free. So keep on keepin' on, Pamela. You are not alone. Do continue writing about your journey...and your fictional adventures. :-) jdh2690@gmail.com

Heoise75 said...

Dear Miss Pamela Clare,

You are a fighter! You Can”t give up, ever never!I am your fan and I love you because you are an amazing writer! Your writing style is brilliant, a genious, sexy & very funny!
I am really scared because of those news from the past, let”s hope for a better future, believe in it, together!
I am so sorry! Fate is twisted!
Please, please be with us as many time as possible, write for us many more thrilling books and be healthy for all the people who love you!

Unknown said...

And once again your honesty is refreshing. I'm so glad to hear you pushing through it-good days, bad days up and down days. I will admit to being saddened if you stop writing romance but do whats best for you and what brings you the most peace.

Thanks for the hours of reading pleasure you have giving me in the mean time.

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"I am an artist. I am here to live out loud."
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