Ronni Gordon

You wouldn’t think a cancer survivor would get upset by being asked, “How are you feeling?” Or that they would be bothered by being told, “You look great.” None of...

Back in my newspaper days, when telling someone what beat I covered, I would say something like, “I have arts and entertainment.” I also had the mental health beat, so...

I’m not good at being tired. As I write this, I’m struggling to stay awake. I have things to do and stories to write, but I can do these things...

In “Love, Medicine and Miracles,” the surgeon Bernie Siegel writes about a group of “exceptional cancer patients” whose positive attitude helped them heal. When I read it while in the...

Editor's note: This article discusses the author's experience with a friend's suicide, which may be triggering to some readers. A heartbreaking thing happened so many years ago that when I...

“Throw yourself onto the court,” the tennis coach was saying. We were practicing serve and volley. The idea is that you get a head start by being part-way into the...

When Facebook sends you a message to wish someone well on their birthday, and that person has died, the first thing you do is cringe. Then you look at their...

You might think your junk drawer is full of, well, junk, but its contents can actually reveal a lot about you. I don't actually know what to make of all...

When my doctor presented my treatment plan to me in 2003, he asked if I wanted to be enrolled in a trial for something he called a hole plugger. He...

There are pros and cons of blogging in a community with people who have, or have had, the same or similar illnesses. The good part is the sense of solidarity...

‘Tis the season to be jolly. You hear it everywhere. You’re supposed to be jolly, because the song says it’s the season for it. You’re supposed to buy the perfect...

Check out Part 1 of Ronni's series on life after transplant, Going Home After Transplant: Not a Piece of Cake. When you go home from the hospital after your stem...

I had been divorced for many years when I got leukemia in 2003, but I didn’t go into it alone. My baby sister, Diane, stepped up, becoming my primary caregiver...

It is natural for leukemia patients to worry about an upcoming stem cell transplant. I worried plenty. The whole concept was momentous and mysterious. A lot of excitement surrounded the...

The other day I went into a checkup feeling fine and went out feeling anxious, and all because of one innocuous word that the doctor said. The word? Still. She...

For many people, losing a chip off their tooth is at most an annoyance. But for me, it is a big deal. When it happened the other day, a feeling...

I saw a brochure on how to tell the children that you have cancer, but nothing about how to tell your mother. Telling my kids required carefully thinking it through...

I have been playing a lot of pretty good outdoor tennis. It is crazy to do in the heat. It is not good for my skin. But I don’t see...

The benefit of being at a teaching hospital is that you get access to a wealth of knowledge and many opinions. That is the downside also. I can’t count the...

A brochure called “What Do I Tell the Children?” caught my eye at Dana-Farber’s Blum Patient and Family Resource Center when I arrived early for a checkup and browsed through...