How many of us take a good night’s sleep for granted? For the first half of my life, I didn’t have a clue what it was like to lay in bed, desperately hoping for sleep. I always went to sleep within seconds after my head hit the pillow. Since then, however, sleep seems as illusive to me as finding Bigfoot in my backyard. While I know the root cause of my chronic insomnia, finding a way to fix it may be more impossible than turning lead into gold.<PREVIEWEND>

Leslie, I give you the floor……

From Leslie Aun, Director of Marketing & Communications, Komen:

Yes we know that some people feel there is pink overload. But as long as a woman dies of breast cancer every 74 seconds, we don’t think there is enough pink. And despite the criticism that we often hear, most people are very comfortable with the amount of pink they see. In a recent study we conducted of the general public, 87% said there is not too much pink, while 85% say they are more likely to buy a product or service if they know it will benefit the battle against breast cancer.

Despite what you might hear, real progress has been made in terms of detection, treatment and survival. The five-year relative survival rate for early-stage breast cancer (cancer that hasn't left the breast) is now at 98%. In just the past 20 years, breast cancer mortality rates in the U.S. have dropped by 31%. It’s not at all unusual anymore to meet women who are living strong and productive lives long after their diagnosis.

Leslie Aun, Director of Marketing & Communications, Komen National

After church today some of my girlfriends and I stayed to commiserate about the collective, catastrophic changes all of us have encountered this year. Like Queen Elizabeth, who publicly referred to her “annus horribilis,” we all agreed that in many ways, we too, have had a horrible year. In reference to a year of stress, one of my friends matter-of-factly stated that she’d “lost her glue” to which I responded, “My glue died.” While our individual stories prompted serious thought, the real question for most of us is how do we change what we don’t like about our lives? How do we get our mojo back, and perhaps most importantly, how do we become our own glue?<PREVIEWEND>

1. Be your own best friend. Most of us instinctually know when we’ve gone down the wrong path. Don’t wait for permission before you make changes to your life. Instead, give yourself permission to act in your own best interest.

2. Focus on the solution not the problem. Step back and look at the big picture. How did you get here and what’s the best way to get out or lessen the problem?

3. Know when it’s time to ask for help. While we may like to think we’re Wonder Woman or Superman, none of us always manage to find our way out of the maze. Find a counselor or a trusted friend who can help you think through your options.

4. Don’t move on without healing the problem. Just because you don't work through your grief and anger doesn't mean it's not there. Resolve problems before they stack up and become cumulative.

My girlfriends at church are a wonderfully supportive group of women. Our love of God and one another makes for our own powerful, healing glue. Thank you, sweet friends, for leading the way. You always manage to lift me up.

 “Sugar and spice and everything nice, that’s what little girls are made of…” The writer of this popular children’s rhyme forgot a key ingredient, estrogen, the hormone that turns sugar and spice into curvy hips and breasts. Estrogen is great until it runs out, as in “I’m menopausal, out of estrogen, and I’ve got a gun,” or when it turns on us and is linked to some breast and ovarian cancers.

Many breast cancers are fed by estrogen, so if you’ve been diagnosed with estrogen-positive (ER+) breast cancer, you may want to block all forms of estrogen. It’s interesting to note that women who have a recurrence of ER+ breast cancer have higher levels of estrogen in their blood, even if they’ve taken estrogen-blocking drugs. If you’ve been treated for ER+ early-stage breast cancer, here are some dos and don’ts to reduce your risk of recurrence:<PREVIEWEND>

• Because exercise lowers blood estrogen, be physically active every day. Try and walk 30 minutes, six days a week.

• Even if you’re past menopause, excess weight around a woman’s waist often turns into excess circulating estrogen in the body. Therefore be as lean as you can, within normal body weight, but not skinny. Chemotherapy and radiation treatment for breast cancer can often make it difficult to keep weight on, but do not use this time as permission to diet. Your body needs lots of healthy, colorful low fat foods to fight your cancer.

• Research has shown 30-50% of cancers are nutrition-related. Reduce consumption of high-fat meats, cheese, whole milk, fried foods, processed foods and fast foods. Trim fat and skin from meats.

• Limit red meat and processed meats as well as chicken, eggs and dairy that may contain added hormones. Look for products that say “Hormone Free.”

• Cancer is an “obligate glucose metabolizer” which means its preferred food source is glucose. Since sugar is 50% glucose, it seems logical to minimize refined sugar found in cookies, candy, soda and desserts. Limit refined white foods like bread, pasta and rice, which easily convert to sugar.

• Look for the word “whole” on the label when purchasing cereal, pasta, crackers, bread, tortillas and rice. Use brown rice instead of white.

• Eat a diet primarily of fruits and vegetables, including berries, nuts, seeds and “whole” grains, which provide powerful and important phytochemicals that protect cells and stimulate the immune system.

• A big portion of your immune system is in your gut. Keep it regular and running smoothly by drinking a daily probiotic. Whole grain breads also bring added fiber to the diet.

• We’ve all heard soy is a breast cancer inhibitor, but once you’re diagnosed with ER+ breast cancer, soy is thought to produce phytoestrogen effects, or they act like the hormone estrogen. While this is controversial, many oncologists suggest women with ER+ breast cancer avoid all soy products, soy supplements and soy isoflavones.

• Limit alcohol consumption. Alcohol has been shown to increase estrogen metabolism and circulating estrogen levels in postmenopausal women. Because research on the amount of alcohol consumed per day is mixed, it is suggested alcohol should be limited to 3 to 4 drinks a week.

• Avoid body and skin care products containing soy and all forms of parabens. Parabens are used as preservatives and produce possible estrogenic effects when absorbed by the blood stream. Unfortunately most of the shampoos, lotions, skin care creams and sexual lubricants on the market contain methyl, ethyl, propyl, butyl, isopropyl and isobutylparabens. You might consider shopping for all natural products at Whole Foods, or online at BreastCancerSisterhood’s Retail Therapy.

• This is probably obvious, but avoid all forms of estrogen creams, patches and yes, bioidentical hormones. As the Today Show’s Dr. Nancy Snyderman told me, “Hormones are hormones are hormones.”

And finally, don't become obsessed trying to follow, to the letter, all of these dos and don'ts. As with everything in life, do all things in moderation, including moderation.

This week one of my best friends was diagnosed with breast cancer, and I’m devastated for her. The news that she will be hurled into the same ugly fight I’ve endured has rocked me to my core. Naively, I hoped I’d taken the “hit” for all of the women I love, but cancer doesn’t work that way. Cancer is indiscriminate.<PREVIEWEND>

After two suspicious mammograms and an ultrasound, my friend had a needle biopsy. For the next three days we waited for the results. Thursday her doctor left a voicemail saying, “We need to chat. I’ll call you, again, tomorrow.” Tossed out like a line from a bad “B” movie, I wondered what kind of doctor leaves such a thoughtless message. Surely the doctor knew the implications of her words, that they would hang in the air like bold letters etched in stone. At that point it was hard for me to throw out positive lifelines, and even harder for my friend to catch, and so we steeled ourselves for the worst.

Since high school my two best friends have been Gayle and Lee. They are smart, funny women who’ve seen me through good times and bad. Today it’s my and Lee’s turn to be there for Gayle, because Gayle is the one who’s been diagnosed with estrogen positive breast cancer. To say we’re shocked is an understatement and to say we’re angry doesn’t begin to describe the anguish and devastation we feel.

At the same moment Gayle called me on my landline to tell me her biopsy results, Lee was calling my cell phone to see if I’d heard from her. In a weird kind of conference call, I put Gayle and Lee each on speakerphone, and held the two phones together, while Gayle told us the results. I think we were all prepared, but hearing it and having it confirmed was sobering. I stared at the phones, imagining each of my friends on the other end. I could see their faces, the same faces I’ve loved since we were 16. Our conversation was punctuated by silence, then tears, followed by laughter and more tears.

Yesterday when I told Gayle I might start writing blogs with information I wanted her to have, she suggested I go ahead and use her name. Perhaps by personalizing her breast cancer journey, it might help someone else in ways we have yet to imagine.

Next week Gayle is having a lumpectomy. This will tell us a lot about her cancer and the kind of treatment she’ll need. At this point, we believe her cancer was caught early; Stage 1, and she may need radiation but no chemo. I can’t help but think of when Gayle and Lee and I went to an outdoor Sting concert, in 100 degree plus Texas heat, eight days after my first mastectomy. I wore white linen and my turkey basters, as Lee called them, the temporary drains attached to where my breast had been. Our seats were in the last row and Carrot Top could have been lip-syncing Sting songs for all we knew, but I didn’t care. I was there. I was alive, with my two best friends, singing and clapping like my world hadn’t been condensed onto a glass slide two inches long and three-quarters of an inch wide.

As I looked at the thousands of women in the audience, I thought of the one in eight women who will be diagnosed with breast cancer. I looked from woman to woman thinking, “She’s had it, or she has it and doesn’t know it.” If each of these women had known about my bandages and my turkey basters, where the week before my breast had been, many wouldn’t have agreed with me that life doesn’t get any better than this. I wanted to hug each one of them and tell them to keep singing, keep laughing. Pull from each moment the things you want to remember. Savor them. Laugh at them. Live your life with joy.

So now I’m telling these things to you, Gayle. I love you, sister girl. This won’t be easy--I know--but you will get through this and emerge on the other side stronger than ever. You will be all right. Of that, I am certain.

And to Gayle’s breast cancer, “You’ve raised your ugly malignant neoplasm in the wrong breast, and we’re fixing to kick your ass to the curb!”