Living

Anyone who reads my posts knows how much I love tennis and how much it has helped me heal. It is especially wonderful when I go to a special place...

We quickly packed and drove to the city. I took her to the largest, most expensive place in town. Our room had a great view. The darkening sky was filled...

A part of the process of cancer care is the scan. Before my diagnosis with Hodgkin lymphoma, I had heard the terms before but was not aware of the differences...

The type of fatigue that I had before my diagnosis was different from how I felt during treatment and immediately after. The first, I could push through. The second, not...

I don’t know what I would do without my handsome, passionate, and dependable husband. Man, have we been through the most together!!! I’m sure none of us thought our wedding...

I was doing some spring cleaning on my computer and happened to find a journal entry from just weeks after I was diagnosed with cancer. After reading through it and...

I was sitting in the oncology clinic last week and on the TV I heard, “Like sand through an hourglass these are the times of our lives;” the familiar intro...

I recently took my first trip since my diagnosis a year and a half ago. I flew from Minnesota to Texas to visit my daughters at college. As much as...

Cancer can be a frightening and confusing diagnosis. When diagnosed, a patient may feel like they are in shock and overwhelmed. This can lead to difficulty in making treatment decisions...

Do you have tinnitus? It causes a constant ringing in the ears. Mine is pretty strong. I hear it most the time unless I’m listening to loud music or being...

The one thing I have learned in recent years is that when you post a picture of your pet on social media, whether it’s doing something silly or just being...

Hopefully, you’ve read my first article on CAR T-cell therapy or seen something about it on news reports. It’s getting to be quite the hot topic to write about. I...

I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2011 at 49 years old. At the time, I’d been at my job for about 10 years. When I started this job in...

After I was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma, I was able to watch and wait for two years. My slow-growing blood cancer was growing slowly enough that I didn’t need treatment...

Thanksgiving was really good the year Crystal got done with chemo. When Thanksgiving arrived, she still had one more treatment to go, but she was well on her way to...

The first Thanksgiving after my divorce, my little son put his head down on the table and cried. “I want Daddy to cut the turkey,” he said. He was about...

When I attended my granddaughter’s concert last week, I was taken back by the touching words of the song, “I Believe.” As I listened, the feelings associated with my cancer...

Writing about this is very personal and I’m actually fine about putting it on the internet for strangers to read. Years ago on my personal blog, I wrote about a relationship...

I tell myself that I need to live every day as if it were my last. I should live for today, enjoy my time on this planet, and not waste...

A blood cancer diagnosis is a shock, but what can make it more difficult is navigating the information and research available for patients and their loved ones. To learn more...