Living

I’m a chemo failure. It was 2012 when I was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia. I soon found out that fighting leukemia is complicated. For me, this disease is always...

A runner with a long ponytail gave me a jolt of appreciation for what I was doing: running about four miles before it got hot. It was during an August...

When I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2011, I had never heard of it. On top of that, cancer wasn’t something that I had experienced in my family. My...

I had started my first job since treatment last November. I thought that everything would be fine. I had spent a month back home to recharge and though I was...

Are planning bucket lists fitting only for people going through cancer? Or can it be an eye-opener of living in this life span that can be open for everyone? What...

Guilt. It’s a feeling we all get from time to time. Maybe you forgot to feed the cats in the morning, or you slacked off instead of doing that work...

As I was talking with my friend currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer, it reminded me of a feeling I had during my treatments. She shared that she felt like...

"You're cool!" a third-grade boy said to me while doing cafeteria duty at lunchtime. "Thank you," I replied. A few days later, he said the same thing to me. This...

Stress is a common thing in our society. We feel it at work, in school, when visiting friends, and even with family. It’s hard to get away from it since...

I look at my calendar and I see a day to celebrate just about anything! I do have some favorites. January 1st is National Hangover Day for us Canadians -...

As cancer survivors, we have experienced emotional scars and challenges. I was looking for inspiration and thoughts other than my life with cancer. I discovered that volunteering could provide comfort...

Music has played a role in my life and holds an important place in my chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) journey as well. I started clarinet lessons at the age of...

I recently read the fiction book, The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. The main character, thirty-five-year-old Nora, has become highly depressed. The poor lady carries a lot of guilt. What if she...

It’s funny, recently the subject of music came up and how I used it during cancer to relax on those days when nothing else worked. It’s also how I ended...

After I had been formally diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, my dermatologist at MD Anderson also wanted me to get a mole removed for a biopsy. I don’t even remember what...

When you got the devastating news of being diagnosed with cancer, did you think about how life will change for you? Did you think about what type of patient will...

One of the most difficult parts of having chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is accepting that the way my life was before, is now a memory. After months, maybe years of...

For stem cell transplant recipients, anniversaries, or transplantaversaries, or re-birthdays, are cause for celebration. For divorced people, a wedding anniversary, or a divorced wedding anniversary, brings mixed feelings. Yesterday was...

Ok, imagine this: you’re lying on your back, someone puts a steel bucket over your head then bangs on it with a hammer, over and over in rapid, ear-splitting succession...

I get the question a lot, "How did you know you had non-Hodgkin lymphoma?" My answer... I had no idea where my NHL came from, when it started, nor what...