-
Don’t quantify suffering
Read more: Don’t quantify sufferingOne of the things I learned in support group was to not quantify suffering. It is all too easy to find someone who has it worse off than you – but that does not make your suffering any less valid or real. And when we do this quantification, we are dismissing our own suffering and not acknowledging…
-
Blogs, Bikes, and Breast Cancer
Read more: Blogs, Bikes, and Breast CancerMany of my readers know that in a previous life – 9 years ago now – my husband and I took 16-months off and road […]
-
patient generated 5-minute medical history
Read more: patient generated 5-minute medical historyWhile I was out hiking today, I got to thinking – thinking about one of the challenges I face with complex medical conditions. One of the problems I run into is that I get so used to things as being ‘normal’ that I forget to include them in my medical history. For example, I have…
-
Doctors think patients … and don’t talk down to me…
Read more: Doctors think patients … and don’t talk down to me…I wasn’t sure right away what didn’t feel right, but upon reflection I realize that part of my viscerally negative reaction at the Health 2.0 expo today was the number of vendors that talked down to me the minute they realized I was a patient advocate rather than a doctor or tech representative. I guess…
-
Friends
Read more: FriendsI have not written in a while. I’m finding myself struggling to write, in part because my struggle isn’t really my struggle, so much as it is the struggle of a good friend. I know few people here. I got diagnosed just after arriving, so social circle revolves around the amazing people I met at…
-
Normalization of surgery and toes
Read more: Normalization of surgery and toesIt struck me the other day that the whole concept of surgery has been normalized for me. I knew this about breast cancer surgeries – where the talk of lumpectomies, mastectomies, and reconstruction are just normal part of my vocabulary, but I didn’t realize how that also influenced other areas of my health. When my…
-
Empathy and suffering #digped
Read more: Empathy and suffering #digpedBefore vacation I attended digital pedagogy lab institute (DPLI) in Fredericksburg Virginia. I haven’t been able to write a summary blog post for the experience. […]
-
Eclipses
Read more: EclipsesThey say that seeing a partial solar eclipse is nothing like seeing totality. xkcd sums it up nicely in this image: This was the start of our vacation. We had a crazy rush drive north to ensure we made it into the path of totality. We took a few pictures before totality, but when it…
-
Nancy’s summer blog post challenge
Read more: Nancy’s summer blog post challengeThanks to Marie’s weekly round-up, I did not miss this year’s summer blog post challenge from Nancy. This year’s challenge involved answering 10 questions. I found myself linking back to blog posts. My research involves analyzing my posts for the first 8-months, so I am very familiar with what I wrote in that timeframe. I’m…
-
Normalization of ‘young’
Read more: Normalization of ‘young’I have said before that with all the talk about surgery in the breast cancer community, the idea gets normalized. That is, if you are part of support groups, you talk about various aspects of surgery a lot. Surgery is the primary treatment for breast cancer. It is the treatment that all early stage patients…
