Living

We are deeply saddened to share that blood cancer advocate Scott Christiansen passed away on November 26, 2021. Scott had been living with multiple myeloma since 2017. He will be...

"I was surprised by the results of your recent bone marrow biopsy," my oncologist said. Then she said a word I had never heard before, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). What in...

Well. What a year. And I can’t believe how quickly it’s gone by! In some ways I don’t feel like I have done much this year, I think that’s because...

New Year’s resolutions are hard. One good way to avoid the stress from them is simply not making any. But assuming you’re not going to do that, here are some...

You have to be your own advocate. How many times have we heard that? Ten? One hundred? Eleventy-seventy-jillion? Probably somewhere in between that first and last one. Unfortunately, that’s all...

Cancer survivors are acutely aware of our limited time on earth. Mortality can be in our face. As a cancer survivor, I think more about what really matters and how...

Do you have a New Year's tradition that you follow? The custom is to eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Day in my area. The legend is that Southerns survived on...

So last week marked the seventh anniversary of my blood cancer diagnosis. For those who don’t know the story, I have chronic myeloid leukemia which is also called chronic myelogenous...

Recently, I wrote about my port and how much easier it made my life. Well, like so much in a cancer journey, things change. You can count on it. As...

I’ve been away for a while. It’s not because I went out of remission. It’s also not because I continue to fight fatigue consistently, which I do. It has much...

“The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.” That’s a quote from Buddy the Elf from my favorite Christmas movie, Elf. It’s a small...

I’ve said this before: I absolutely love the holidays, but it’s bittersweet when I think of the many who are no longer here to take it all in. Here we...

The Holidays with cancer. Of course, that’s a phrase no one wants to hear. Or say. Or even read, but for those of us here, it’s probably a reality. Blood...

His name is Vegas, which is appropriate. I gambled on him and lost - if you choose to look at it that way. My heart placed a bet that, after...

People are often surprised when I mention that I am a cancer patient. People say, “You don’t look like a cancer patient.” But what does that mean? I’m not too...

When you are 12 years out – meaning 12 years from the date of your stem cell transplant – you’re not going to have the same checkup anxiety as when...

When I went to elementary school I was not a big fan of Santa Claus. My neighborhood was diverse. We had social housing, low-income housing, and some lovely and pricey...

Last week, I had several medical appointments, two of which were with practitioners I had never seen before. To be clear, neither of them had anything to do with blood...

My oncologist works in a large research hospital that is attached to a medical school. When I go to an appointment with him to check on my follicular lymphoma, there...

When I think of my difficult cancer journey, a Bible verse from Hebrews 12:1 comes to mind. Keep running the race set before you with endurance. I was a runner...