When I first sat down with my oncologist the day before Thanksgiving, and she told me I would need 8 rounds of chemo, one of my first questions admittedly was: 'Will I lose my hair?' It sounds shallow, I know, but it was a very scary image to me.

I made the choice to have the double mastectomy, and for me it felt like the right choice, and it turned out to be the right choice.

I have two cousins with juvenile diabetes. They both contracted the disease before the age of 5, and it was so heartbreaking watching them go through daily blood tests and injections. It is such a difficult disease to live with and requires constant attention; a tough thing to explain to a child.

Deep down, I happen to be very shallow.

A woman said to me when she first sat down, You're photographing the wrong side of my face. I said, Oh, is there one?

Thanksgiving Day is a good day to recommit our energies to giving thanks and just giving.