Articles

It seems like every cancer patient I know can tell the same story. Someone hears that the patient has cancer, and says something insensitive. Maybe it’s a friend or family...

This is a very emotional subject for me. I can’t think about it too much or I get too upset. The thought of never having my own children makes me...

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...

When I was diagnosed with leukemia, my self-esteem was not in great condition. I remember specifically thinking to myself “nobody will even know that I’m gone.” As a junior in...

To categorize this next blog, it’d be under the "health & wellness category" (stay with me) and I give writing inspiration credit to the ever popular “day” declaration. This one...

After ten months of a “watch and wait” approach for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, I was faced with enlarging lymph nodes, which were threatening to cause damage to my organs. My oncologist...

Like most of us, the date I was diagnosed with cancer is etched in my memory. May 2, 2011. In terms of specifics, I remember what the doctor was saying...

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...

Last fall, I found myself as both a cancer survivor of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and caregiver. My husband became critically ill and was hospitalized for over six weeks in an acute...

Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) is a medical condition characterized by increased levels of M protein in the blood. M (monoclonal) protein, also called a paraprotein, is produced by...

I think we can all agree that dating can be tough, but dating after cancer is on a completely different level. Going through chemotherapy at 25 years old left me...

After graduating from Edinburgh and leaving consultant number 1 behind (very happily!), I came under the care of consultant number 2 in London who was also pretty awful. To begin...

Cancer patients often experience significant distress and can have a reduced quality of life. Cancer support groups involve the provision of emotional support informally or through structured intervention. The group...

Strawberry season in Massachusetts – late June to early July – makes me think of the times after transplant when I couldn’t eat this sweet fruit with the sunshiny, summery...

When many people think of clinical trials, they may think of testing a new experimental drug or taking a placebo pill. But, not all clinical trials involve treatment! Even among...

Happiness. That thing that we crave and look for. It’s there and then in a heartbeat, it’s gone. I often ‘lose my happy’. I took this line from one of...

A type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia (WM) is when the cancer cells in the lymphocytes—immune system cells that help the body fight disease—start to produce large amounts of...

In our 2018 Blood Cancer In America survey, over 2,500 people impacted by blood cancer shared their experiences about diagnosis, treatment, and living with blood cancer. Blood cancer is an...

Cancer patients may be susceptible to infections from their disease and from the treatment, which can destroy white blood cells (WBC). Our immune system is designed to recognize and destroy...

The first week was spent in hospital – I don’t remember all that much. I remember my drip who I named George beeped a lot. (Typical man needing constant attention….)...