Book Review: Peace is a Practice; An Invitation to Breathe Deeply and Find a New Rhythm for Life

Recently, I picked up Peace is a Practice; An Invitation to Breathe Deeply and Find a New Rhythm for Life after following the author, Morgan Harper Nichols on Instagram for a bit. She's an amazing poet, artist, writer and activist who also happens to be on the autism spectrum. From following her and reading her … Continue reading Book Review: Peace is a Practice; An Invitation to Breathe Deeply and Find a New Rhythm for Life →

To Bear Witness

We lose friends and acquaintances and people we’ve never met daily to metastatic cancers. Many of us talk about how we are often scared to open social media because of how often we see notices of hospice or decline or death. Some of the last pictures of people we love are horrifying. The suffering we … Continue reading To Bear Witness →

Taking my own advice …

I've worked with quite a few patients with Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC) over the past several years who were attempting to address and educate insurance companies, health, life and disability, as well as governmental entities like Social Security and even their own doctors. One of the first things I tell each person I … Continue reading Taking my own advice … →

Terminal?

Recently, when a friend shared a post I’d written for AdvancedBreastCancer.net on social media, there were a few rather strident responses arguing that Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC) isn’t terminal because that label only applies when a medical professional certifies that a person has six (6) months or less to live or when someone … Continue reading Terminal? →

Mutations become Targets

A little while ago, I wrote a post for SurvivingBreastCancer.org about genetic and genomic mutations, exploring some of the information we learned about my original breast tumor in 2017 and highlighting the differences between genetic and genomic testing. You can access that article here. As an aside SBC is a great resource for those newly … Continue reading Mutations become Targets →

Which Hat: Advocate or Activist?

I was reading some articles recently and came across some discussion about the difference between the titles of "advocate" versus "activist." It stuck out to me since I've often described myself as an advocate throughout my career as a lawyer and more recently, as a patient advocate. And yet, I'm realizing that advocate doesn't wholly … Continue reading Which Hat: Advocate or Activist? →

Receptors

When I was initially diagnosed and joined some online support groups, I discovered a whole new short-hand utilized by patients and medical professionals to describe the different subtypes of breast cancer. At first, these letters and symbols were quite intimidating and it took me some time to get comfortable and familiar with utilizing and interpreting … Continue reading Receptors →

Caregivers

We talk a fair amount about the people in our lives who we look to for support/care in the online MBC support groups. Yes, there's a fair amount of kvetching about the stressors or disappointments because no relationship is perfect; at the same time, I see many more posts laced with love and concern for … Continue reading Caregivers →

10 days after IV Chemo and an MRI

Ten days ago, on 2/4, I started a combination of medication and it’s been a struggle to do anything for the last ten days. I think the fact that everything started all at once made a difference and that it’s been nearly 5 years since I last had IV chemo. With all the oral therapy … Continue reading 10 days after IV Chemo and an MRI →

Things that make you scratch your head …

Transcript of an actual phone call … Me: hello? Caller: calling from specialty pharmacy and after we verify my identity … I’m calling to help you refill your prescription of Xeloda since you are due to receive it. Do you want to pick it up or have it delivered? Me: ok, great, I’ll be at … Continue reading Things that make you scratch your head … →