Heather Albrecht Coaching

One of the things I was the most afraid of when I was first diagnosed was missing the big moments in my kids lives. Today I got to carefully take the tags off of my son's new suit, press his shirt, and help him choose a tie. I got to charge the battery for my Nikon and go take photos of him for prom with his friends.

When my oldest went to prom I was so excited, just a year past my last infusion. I was still pretty bald, so I wore a big fancy sun hat. That same year I watched them graduate. These are the moments that kept me going through chemo, and driving to each radiation appointment.

To those of you who are feeling awful today, I hope this helps you remember something you are fighting for 🩷

Toxic positivity doesn't live here.

But I also work really hard not to let one truth — I had cancer — take over the whole story of my life.

Because there were genuinely great moments in the middle of treatment. Bike rides between chemo rounds. My kids' swim meets with a wig, sunscreen, and zero regrets. Good days that surprised me. Small things that felt big.

And I was not going to let a rule about how cancer patients are supposed to feel steal those moments from me.

That's not toxic positivity. Toxic positivity is "everything happens for a reason" and "just stay positive" and making someone feel like their grief is a problem.

This is something different. This is deciding, on purpose, what gets to take up space in your life. Then and now.

Some days I got it right. Some days I didn't. I'm certainly not perfect at it.

But if you're white-knuckling the positivity right now because you think that's what you're supposed to do, you don't have to. You can feel what you feel AND choose what you give your attention to. Those aren't opposites.

Comment or DM me
REAL
for what helped me actually hold both of those things at once. 💛

Can we talk about feeling gaslit by your own symptom list?

When I was going through radiation, I felt like dog poo. And not the symptoms on the official 'breast radiation side effects' list. Different things. Things that weren't anywhere on the handout they gave me.

When I asked my rad tech team, they said the issues couldn't be from the radiation.

I started to wonder if I was imagining it. If I was being dramatic. If everyone else was just handling it better.

I wasn't. And you're probably not either.

Here's what I've come to believe: your body is telling you something real. It might not be on the list. It might not be what the internet says. But if it's happening to you, it's worth paying attention to.

Advocate for yourself. Ask the question even if you're not sure it's the right one. Trust that you know your body, even when your body is doing things you don't recognize yet.

You were living in this body for decades before the diagnosis. That knowledge doesn't disappear.

If you've ever felt like you had to justify your symptoms, comment REAL or DM me. I see you, and I want to send you something that helped me start trusting myself again. 💛

I spent a lovely weekend with friends and family, I hope you did too! It was a wonderful way to celebrate 4 years since my first biopsy and official diagnosis.

We had friends over last night for game night, today we hid eggs for our kids (we love to torture them and make it nearly impossible, now that they're adults), my mom was here for brunch, and then we restrung a wind 🌬️ chime that broke in a storm. I put it back up and can't wait to hear it next time it's windy!

Nobody prepares you for how unfair this is going to feel.

You did everything right. And here you are anyway.

The unfairness is real. You don't have to silver-lining it. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

Comment or DM me REAL if this is where you are. And if you want to know what actually helped me process it, I'll tell you in the DMs. 💛

I want to tell you about the small thing that shifted my self-confidence enormously.

After chemo, my hair came back very thin. My eyebrows disappeared completely when I started the hormone blockers. I could hide the thin hair in a ponytail, and from the front I felt okay. From the back it was a different story, but I just stopped looking.

The eyebrows though. Every time I looked in the mirror, something was just off. And I couldn't stop noticing.

In January I got eyebrow tattoos.

It sounds like a small thing. And in the context of everything we go through, it is a small thing.

But it shifted something. When I look in the mirror now, I recognize myself more. That version of me who feels put together, who feels like herself — she's more available to me now.

I'm not saying eyebrow tattoos are the answer for everyone. I'm saying: the small things that make you feel more like you are worth paying attention to. They're not vanity. They're part of finding your way back.

What's your version of this? The small thing that helped you feel more like yourself? Comment REAL or DM me, I'd genuinely love to know. 💛

(If you want to see the reel I made with before and after, here it is: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFMIimPJQTG/)

Hi my young breast cancer friends! I have been really loving listening to The Pause Life by Dr. Mary Claire Haver lately. This podcast episode is for us:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3oH8RaeLdzVdriOSHMKO5S?si=Vk4nx_8eRuevETvHZkZIXA&t=1797&ct=1655

It's SO good. It's the info some never get from their oncologist or just don't have the capacity to absorb in the office. I hope you like it!

Hi my young breast cancer friends! I have been really loving listening to The Pause Life by Dr. Mary Claire Haver lately. This podcast episode is for us:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3oH8RaeLdzVdriOSHMKO5S?si=Vk4nx_8eRuevETvHZkZIXA&t=1797&ct=1655

It's SO good. It's the info some never get from their oncologist or just don't have the capacity to absorb in the office. I hope you like it!

Can't Take Estrogen? Dr. Corinne Menn on Who Can, Who Can't & What's Changed unPAUSED with Dr. Mary Claire Haver · Episode