If there is a way to turn something insignificant into a major source of worry, I will find it. With laser-like precision I can turn a simple blackhead into Stage IV melanoma, while bulldozing through a likely list of candidates to be James’s next wife, all in the time it takes to examine the blemish in question in better light. Like my mother I am a champion worrywart but unlike my mother, I work hard at dealing with my sometimes paralyzing anxiety. How, you ask? Hypnosis. <PREVIEWEND>

I love hypnosis. For over 20 years, hypnosis has helped me alleviate many of my fears and anxiety. It has helped me deal with death, disease and dread. Conducted by a certified clinical hypnotherapist, hypnosis bares no resemblance to stage performers who get audience volunteers to believe they have been abducted by aliens from planet Zeon. Simply put, real hypnosis keeps your conscience mind busy while a certified hypnotherapist talks to your unconscious mind about issues you want to address. At all times you have free will. Your unconscious mind knows what you can handle and what is in your best interest. No one will make you do anything you do not want to do while you are under hypnosis. Your unconscious mind will not let them.

Hypnosis works for most everyone and can lessen fear, anxiety, even sleep problems and hot flashes, but it is especially effective for newly diagnosed cancer patients, survivors and those with recurrence. Before both mastectomies and reconstruction surgeries, and before and after each of my chemotherapies, I used hypnosis. The psychologist I use was recommended by my family physician and is affiliated with a local hospital. Make sure you only deal with someone who is certified and experienced in hypnosis. During our sessions we talk about my concerns, whether it is the duration of the surgery, the anesthesia, my recovery, etc., then she inserts a tape cassette into a recorder and we began the hypnosis process. At the end of each session my doctor gives me the tape cassette we made in her office so I can listen to it as often as I want.

After one of my breast cancer surgeries, the anesthesiologist stopped by my room to tell me he did not have to administer as much anesthesia as he had expected to keep me at the level the surgeon required. The anesthesiologist was quite puzzled by this. I told him I was not surprised because I had been listening to a custom hypnosis tape everyday for two weeks. The tape said my body would begin to relax on a muscular/skeletal level and would produce its own pain suppressors, thereby keeping me from needing as much anesthesia and making for a quicker post-surgical recovery. The anesthesiologist agreed hypnosis had done both of these things for me, and he wished more people would take advantage of hypnosis. By the way, I never took any pain meds after any of my eight surgeries, and I never was never nauseated after any of my eight chemotherapies.

To find an accredited hypnotherapist in your area, checkout the American society of Clinical Hypnosis, www.asch.net/ plus watch the MIND & BODY videos on www.breastcancersisterhood.com/

The only thing worse than buying a new pair of jeans is buying a new bra. I remember when my mother took me to a department store to buy my first bra. A matronly salesclerk with doughy hands and an abrupt manner asked me to disrobe from the waist up, then proceeded to measure my barely there, prepubescent breasts. If that wasn’t bad enough, my mother hovered in the fitting room doorway making comments like, “Poor little thing. She’s got a figure like a yardstick. She may never grow into a decent pair of breasts.”

For most of us, buying a new bra continues to be a frustrating experience, especially if we have undergone various breast cancer procedures. Here are a few things to keep in mind that might make buying a post breast cancer bra a little easier:<PREVIEWEND>

1. Find a professional bra fitter, and do not be embarrassed for her to see your breasts. Bra fitters have seen the good, the bad and the ugly, and what you think is bad, will probably earn you five stars from your bra fitter. On a weekly basis, bra fitters see everything: women with three breasts—I personally know a woman with three breasts—to transsexuals who’ve begun taking hormones and are there to buy their first “training bra.” So while your mastectomy may be a big deal to you, it is not a big deal for your fitter.

2. You have made it through treatment. You can do anything! Do not give breast cancer any more of your power than it has already claimed. Wear your scars proudly. They have made you stronger. They are your survivorship badges. You have walked through the valley of the shadow of death and nothing, certainly not buying a bra, should intimidate you now.

3. No one is more critical of our bodies than we are. Few women, even high paid models and cover girls have perfect bodies, which is generally what makes them good models. They have some feature, slightly out of sync, that makes them distinctive. Most of us have one breast larger than the other, inverted nipples or nipples that look like landing sites on a hummingbird feeder. How many of us have a perfect nose, great looking feet or pretty shell-shaped ears? Breasts are the same. Do not single out one body part and fixate on it. We are not our feet. We are not our breasts. We are the whole package—a thinking, loving, compassionate woman, and compassion starts at home, so cut yourself a break. A beautiful woman is more “mindset” than body.

4. Each year 250,000 women, in the United States alone, are diagnosed with breast cancer, in addition to over 2.5 million U.S. survivors. That translates into one in seven or eight women, in their lifetime, who will get breast cancer. Granted, we are not talking about the other 2,749,999 women who are buying a new bra, we are talking about you, but the odds are pretty good the woman in the next fitting room is also a breast cancer survivor.

5. Buy at least one sexy bra, even if you do not have a partner who will see it, and buy bras often. I cannot tell you how many women I see at the gym who are wearing the same shapeless, dowdy looking grayish yellow bra they bought five years ago. Even a twenty-year-old would look like a sack of potatoes in a bra like that. A few months after my first mastectomy, I bought myself a red velvet bra for Valentines Day, and I wear it every opportunity I have. Get rid of the notion of “saving it for good.” Good is every day you are alive, so wear that beautiful bra to the grocery store.

I dreamed I was cancer free in my Maidenform bra… and I am!