There is a peculiar loneliness in suffering that cannot decide how visible it is allowed to become. A terrible arithmetic that governs and if you step wrong, there are serious consequences. Maybe not in the short run, but absolutely over time. Speak too often of pain, exhaustion, grief, disability, illness, fear—and suddenly your humanity is … Continue reading The Burden of Honesty in Suffering
Recently a fellow member of the Live from Stage 4 podcast team, Dr. Jill Tirabassi, recorded an episode reviewing a study examining the Time Burden in Patients With Metastatic Breast and Ovarian Cancer from Clinic and Home Demands (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12709373/) and since cancer care feels like a full time job to me, especially during times of … Continue reading Shit we deal with — Time Toxicity
If you are interested in hearing more from me and several health care professionals committed to supporting patients through this pesky and difficult adverse event, check out this MASCC (multinational association of supportive care in cancer) webinar on Thursday here. Fatigue is too gentle a word for what cancer (and the necessary treatments) does to … Continue reading Cancer Fatigue, the Elephant in the room
I was recently honored to participate as a patient partner in a webinar organized by the Multinational Association for Supportive Cancer Care (MASCC) and it was recorded. Watch the recording from the MASCC recent webinar: Optimizing CINV Management: Best Practices for Addressing Delayed Nausea with T-DXd: https://lnkd.in/evNhRAih. I spoke for about 15 minutes after the … Continue reading Managing Chemotherapy Induced Nausea and Vomiting (CINV)
Accountability”—that tidy word Merriam-Webster offers up as an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility for one’s actions—has threaded itself through the past weeks, stitching tight seams through my days at a new infusion center, where I've spent time each week receiving my new line of treatment, Taxol. When I knew IV treatment would soon redraw … Continue reading Holding Healthcare Accountable as a Patient
During the 2026 Living Beyond Breast Cancer MBC conference, which was the 20th anniversary of that particular conference this past weekend, I had the distinct honor of serving on a panel during a breakout session organized by Project Life and brilliantly moderated by April Stearns from Wildfire Community. My fellow panelist, Nikoo McGoldrick, a bestselling … Continue reading Integrative Oncology: Tending to the Inner Self, a reflection
Time 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
Over the last few years, I’ve carried the quiet, disorienting sense that my life has been reduced—pulled inward, pared down to something smaller than I once imagined, something I didn’t recognize at first as my own. I fought it. I grieved it. I raged against the narrowing, cried until the edges blurred, mourned the life … Continue reading Pros and cons of a small(er) life
There is a quiet, particular grief in watching the scaffolding of the health care system meant to hold you sway, splinter, and give. Not all at once, not dramatically enough to draw alarm—just a subtle leaning at first, a hairline fracture you convince yourself can be repaired. Until one day you realize you are carrying … Continue reading The Erosion of Hope in Terminal Illness
It was the season of knowing and not knowing. The doctors said the word terminal, repeatedly, and then time began to move in three directions at once—forward toward progression, forward in all the ordinary days and also backward through memories of what life used to be. Each scan carries the question of how much had … Continue reading A tale of two lives
No Half Measures 