Author: Abigail Johnston

I'm a daughter, a wife, a mother, and I've been living with Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer since March, 2017. All of the words I publish are my own.

I wish … *

I wish for me that there is peace. I wish for you that you feel peace. I wish for all that peace is a priority. I wish for me that there is acceptance. I wish for you that you feel accepted by those you need acceptance from. I wish for us all that there is … Continue reading I wish … * →

Christmas 2020

Christmas is my favorite holiday, despite my struggles with feeling that my birthday (the 21st) is overshadowed and my angst about Santa Claus. I think part of why I love Christmas is the decorations -- I love lights and am bowled over again and again by the creativity of so many in their decorating. However, … Continue reading Christmas 2020 →

One More Trip Around the Sun

At 4:30 a.m. on this winter solstice during the weirdest year EVER, I turned 42. When I was diagnosed with Metastatic Breast Cancer in 2017 at the age of 38, I wondered if I would even see 40 since just getting the diagnosis felt as if death was imminent. Well, I saw 40 and then … Continue reading One More Trip Around the Sun →

Weekly Round-Up

T for this week’s round-up of the best of the blog posts which I’ve read over the past week. These are the posts that have moved me, taught me …Weekly Round-Up

One hour person

I was recently watching The Resident on Fox and one of the depictions of the patient's really resonated with me.  As an aside, if you don't already follow The Resident, let me suggest you try it out.  Lots of really interesting behind the scenes depictions of health care!  I'm sure it's not 100% accurate; at the … Continue reading One hour person →

Review of 2020 on tickingoffbreastcancer.com

Whilst 2020 has been a terrible year for everyone thanks to COVID-19, cancer has continued impact the lives of so many people. Which means that it’s …Review of 2020 on tickingoffbreastcancer.com

SABCS 2020

The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) occurs every year and is the largest gathering of breast cancer researchers and clinicians in the world that I know about. I've attended the conference in person the last two years and it's overwhelming in size and content. For 2020, as with most conferences, SABCS shifted it's content … Continue reading SABCS 2020 →

Presentations

Even before I went to graduate school to get an actual education degree, I've spent a lot of time in my life teaching. This role was given to me early on in life as the eldest of six and continued as we were all homeschooled, most of us through middle school. While we didn't have … Continue reading Presentations →

Different types of courage

I've written before about courage in the face of Adversity and how it takes a special kind of courage to keep going while living with Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC). As I've been learning more about myself and my own personality, I realize that I tend to gravitate towards more concrete parts of courage … Continue reading Different types of courage →

Wire Localization

Sounds a bit medieval, right? When I showed up for my pre-surgical appointment, I was told for the first time that a radiologist would be inserted wires in my breast tissue to guide the surgeon in ensuring that she cut precisely and removed both tumors and then weird space in between that looked like it … Continue reading Wire Localization →