Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC) MBC Conference 2023

Tomorrow, I’ll be getting on a plane to head to Philadelphia for the 2023 Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC) Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC) Annual conference. The last time I went to this conference was the last time it was held in person, way back in 2019, when I participated in the Hear My Voice (HMV) Advocacy class for those of us living with Stage IV MBC. It was a life changing, life altering, life affirming experience for me.

This year, I’m looking forward to a lot of things …

• Hugging people in real life I’ve never met in person!
• Hugging people in real life I’ve met a time or two but never get to see enough!
• Hugging people I’ve just met because we go deep, fast, in this community.
• Hanging out with my roommates in our adjoining rooms that the hotel has screwed up multiple times and caused a gigantic ruckus around here … ok, yes I’m the ruckus.
• Womaning the Project Life table with dear friends and other members of the leadership team. We’ve got some amazing goodies and ribbons and information to hand out about the virtual wellness house for those of us living with MBC, our caregivers and allies.
• Assisting with a talk/presentation/breakout session TODAY on making multiple treatment decisions. https://www.lbbc.org/community/events/metsconf23#wed
• Assisting with moderating virtual hangouts TODAY for those who are attending in person or virtually. These virtual hangouts will continue throughout the conference to help everyone feel more connected.
• Hanging with, eating with, connecting with, getting pictures with the rest of the admin team for the Newly Diagnosed MBC Facebook support group on Thursday evening!
• Reading in the play, IV: Our Lives on Friday evening not just to educate others about the MBC experience but also to honor those we’ve lost to MBC, including my dear friend, Amanda Raffenaud. If you can’t attend in person, you can watch the livestream. Pertinent information can be found here and via the QR code on the picture below.

Whew, it’s going to be amazing. It’s going to be exhausting and it’s going to be, once again, life changing. If you will be there or attending virtually, I hope we will be able to connect.

And now I must finish all the things here at home that will allow me to head out of town. Can’t forget to shout out all the spouses and children and partners and all of those holding down the fort at home so that I and others are able to travel away from home and connect with others in the MBC community. My husband, Elliot, handles a lot so I can do these things that feed my soul.