Living

As a newly diagnosed blood cancer patient, I was very concerned about telling my child about my illness. My first reaction was to keep the news from them or to...

I think blood cancer is making me anxious or maybe it's this coronavirus. Darn! Why didn't I buy stock in a hand sanitizer company? I knew a lady who attended...

Cancer is a horrible and scary disease. No one wants to ever hear the words, "You've got cancer.” However, I believe that we can think of it as a positive...

In my lifetime, I’ve known of six people who’ve committed suicide. Three I knew personally. None of them had cancer. Some would say they were selfish and only thinking of...

I know I am my own worst enemy. Because I am mental in so many ways. I know I need to rest over the weekends and just sit on the sofa and...

I can admit it.  A great athlete I am not.  And that is not just due to the fact that I am quite rapidly (and rather disturbingly) approaching fifty.  This...

As I celebrate my five years of remission from non-Hodgkin lymphoma, I thought about my initial diagnosis. I had just finished with the best summer of my life, enjoying the...

I’ve been saying a lot of four-letter words lately. I can’t help myself. I didn’t used to be like this. In fact, it didn’t really happen all that much until...

My mother and I were eating lunch at Taco Bell recently when a young lady approached us and said, "Hi, ladies. I need to buy some clothes for my great-aunt. ...

Nobody should say you’re lucky to get cancer, but luck is a matter of degree. For example, an acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patient like myself is lucky compared to one...

It would appear that since being on the new drug and feeling so much better that I’m really resisting chill time on the weekend. This is so stupid because I’m...

Join us in helping the International Myeloma Foundation (IMF) build a global Wall of Resilience this March during Myeloma Action Month. Share a photo and a short story on Facebook...

Those of us who have had the unbridled pleasure of going through chemo know that after the first session or two, you develop a routine. Just like making your favorite...

I haven’t always been a football fan. I only started appreciating the sport later in life for keeping me company as I spent every fall Sunday grading papers and writing...

A survey was done by the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) to explore the experiences and needs of cancer survivor patients. The online survey of over thirteen hundred cancer...

Yesterday I just shut down. I was grumpy. No matter what happened around me, it all seemed gloomily annoying. Somehow I managed to keep my mouth shut and avoid snapping...

Editor's note: Susan Gonsalves interviewed her friend, Robin, after meeting at a CML support group. Robin shared photos of herself that are inserted within the article, including a photo while...

When my 25-year-old daughter, Crystal, went for her first doctor’s appointment, she was told her cancer had nothing to do with anything she did. The doctor also told her about...

While I enjoyed a terrific life before my blood cancer diagnosis, I have now realized that some additional positive things have become part of my daily life as a cancer...

Heading to my checkup the other day at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, I went up to the eighth floor, the one clearly marked for leukemia. So it might sound odd...