In September I’m headed out to the UK for a couple of conferences. One of them is an ePatient conference on the medical, ethical, and legal repercussions of blogging and microblogging experiences of illness and disease, hosted by Queens University in Belfast (conference link here). At the conference I’ll be reporting on the impact survey…
My new mantra is What is a non-cancer reason for this? I am actively trying to reprogram my lizard brain. Whenever I have a new symptom, or something doesn’t go as expected, I worry. I start to go down that path of OMG this is disease progression. But in order to stay sane, I’m trying to…
Please help me reach my goal of $1000 for this years Peak Hike by donating at: Becky’s Hike. The Peak Hike for Prevention has a special place in my heart. It represents a special transition in my well being. I am excited that I’ll be participating in this years’ Peak Hike, as it is the…
We need to change this message. The entire concept of BMI is outdated, and yet, doctors are still using it to measure our well-being. It needs to stop. A message to my doctors, rather than making a remark about losing weight, perhaps you could enquire about my health? And then maybe, rather than comment on…
I know that some people in my cancer-blogosphere (cancer bloggers that I follow) really hate the expression “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. For so many people who are diagnosed with cancer it is the furthest thing from the truth. The treatments for cancer can do anything but make you stronger. And yet, this…
As we walked through the streets of San Francisco and into Marin County we heard this song over and over again. It isn’t actually an anthem for cancer, rather one for mental health – but it feels so appropriate. Mental health and breast cancer are somewhat inter-linked – in that breast cancer and its treatments…
Before bed each night, I think of this song as I put on my new CPAP mask. I had originally started out with the nasal pillow variety of the mask but that didn’t work for me. I sleep too much with my mouth open, so the nasal only mask just ended up filtering the humidified…
This week, Ann did the footwork (thank you) and posted about a false statistics that has been made very popular within the breast cancer blogosphere. I must confess, that I am guilty of using this false statistic. But worse, this false statistic has caused me great amount of unnecessary stress and emotional harm. What is this…
It is amazing how difficult that was form to type and how difficult it was for me to say. It is almost as difficult as it was for me to say “I have breast cancer”. I’ve actually been cancer free since December 17, 2014 – when the last of my breast tissue was removed from…
I had a couple of follow up doctor’s appointments yesterday. I was struck by how everyone seem to be commenting on my hair – then I realized, the last time I was in to see these doctors I only had a thin covering of grey hair, not a head full of dark hair. So, I…
