My Amazing Book

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY DON'T GROW BACK

Please tell me you currently have a cuppa in one hand and my book in the other!

What book you ask? So pleased you asked… Well, my book is titled:

What Happens When They Don't Grow Back - The upside down view of life after a bilateral mastectomy

It’s my first book and it’s a witty, light-hearted somewhat quirky look at life after a bilateral mastectomy. I have written it from firsthand lived experience. That’s right, I was diagnosed back in 2015 and through my book I share how I discovered my breasts decided not to magically grow back.

BUY "WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY DON'T GROW BACK..." HERE

elegant rebel

From an early age I chose to not subscribe to what someone else’s opinion of normal was.

So after breast cancer treatment, I decided to elegantly rebel. To stay flat. To simply be myself. Stylishly. Authentically. No boobs required. I have been a proud ‘Flattie’ since 2015!

No subject is sacred in my wee tome. Normal is not expected when reading this book. Normal is debunked in fact. You may even discover the fact when you don’t fit in with society’s version of normal is exactly how you fit in.

In this heartfelt, openly honest read, I share how I decided to rebel quietly and definitively against external expectations and their version of normal. It is a story of much soul searching, trial and error, succumbing, and discovering the really odd things which may occur to your mind, body and spirit after having a bilateral mastectomy, such as popping ribs, expanding bellies, finally enjoying exercise and how we fall under the spell of 'being a woman equals having breasts'.

Invisibility is a huge internal challenge for many of us. This is another topic I tackle and especially around the invisibility you feel during treatment – immediate and ongoing - when surrounded by friends and family and clinicians who all just want you to feel normal again. Strangely, they forget to ask you what this actually means for you.

PURCHASE YOUR COPY OF "WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY DON'T GROW BACK..." HERE

CELEBRATE YOUR UNIQUENESS

Believe in your ability to choose

What is the underlying theme of my wee tome you ask – choice! We make choices every single day. We may not always realise we are doing this – but we do. And I am a firm believer in choices and the belief your ability to choose. Remembering and believing you know what the best choice for you and your ability to thrive beyond breast cancer.

Throughout my odyssey there was much ignoring of my own inner-knowing and intuition. But I did get there, and I share some of how I did this in my first book. My elegantly unique emotional support toolkit is filled to the brim with the science stuff, the woo-woo and everything in between.

By sharing my experience and toolkit, my hope is others will find their own voice. Take up their own space. Stand in their own personal power. Ask their own questions. Find their own truth. Celebrate their uniqueness.

And above all, be able to choose and voice what is the best option for themselves – and only themselves – post mastectomy, whether that is staying flat, reconstructed or prosthesis-upped.

So grab your copy, another cuppa, curl up and enjoy.

PURCHASE YOUR COPY HERE

Elegant rebel

Acknowledgement to Country

peta-annwood.au and Indigo Dreaming acknowledges all First Nations Peoples as Traditional Custodians of Country and recognises their continuing connection to land, sea, culture and community. We pay our respects to Elders' past, present and emerging.