About 30% of people diagnosed with breast cancer at any stage will develop distal metastasis. I am one.
Jude Calligros. Victoria Ford. Kristi Frazier. Jaime Spring. These ladies, four of my sisters in mets, died this weekend. As hard as I try not to make their deaths about me, it feels like it is about me. That thing that killed them is going to kill me –...
Do not tell me how to feel! For those who may not read through to the end, here is the take home: you do not get to tell me how to feel or what my attitude should be, no matter who you are. Sure, it’s more comfortable for me and...
I recently read a blog by Dr. Danielle Ofri in the New York Times “Well” blog about how as a physician she learned to respect the patient’s wishes even when they contradict her professional inclinations. It’s called Doctor Priorities vs Patient Priorities” She writes that the patient is looking through...
From time to time I think about the words we use to talk about people who have cancer, especially metastatic cancer. There are several posts about this on my old site. One of my favorites is called Chronically Terminal Rumination. In that post, I wrote: My problem with the terminology...
I am very pleased to reblog Elisabeth Cramer’s excellent post “Drowning in Pink” with her kind permission. Elisabeth does a wonderful job of summarizing the story of how the current Kohl’s-Komen campaign has co-opted Metavivor’s tag and theme without permission. Please check out Elisabeth’s blog Pugtato: Adventures in Creativity and Teamwork....
Maybe you know the 1909 poem by Thomas Hardy, “The Dead Man Walking” or the 1993 book by anti-death penalty activist Sr. Helen Prejean , Dead Man Walking, or the 1995 film that was based on the book. Hardy’s poem is about a life of disappointment and rejection, about depression. The...
Let’s talk about insomnia. For the past several weeks, I’ve been coping (with varying degrees of success) with insomnia. This is not uncommon in cancer patients and seems to be linked to cancer-related fatigue, as well. I hate taking any kind of drug that fuddles my mind, so I avoid...
Here is something silly and senseless: “You may not have lived much under the sea—” (“I haven’t,” said Alice)—”and perhaps you were never even introduced to a lobster—” (Alice began to say, “I once tasted—” but checked herself hastily, and said, “No, never”) “—so you can have no idea what...
If my tears could water the ground and nourish the seed that sprouts and grow the plant that bears fruit this wouldn’t happen any more. The ugly growth of metastasis would be no more. The doctors would no longer say, “We did our best; we’ll keep you comfortable.” There would...
In reference to Ms Keller’s astonishing piece “Forget funeral selfies. What are the ethics of tweeting a terminal illness?” published online on 8 January 2014. First, my full disclosure: Like Lisa Bonchek Adams, I have Stage IV (advanced, metastatic) breast cancer, although I am perhaps not as close to the...
