In the past decade, going to the doctor has felt a bit like guzzling apple cider vinegar while walking barefoot on hot coals. Not exactly my idea of fun. Thursday’s appointment was no exception—bad news again. Not necessarily cancer, but a complicated cocktail of issues my doctor believes first set my cancer into motion. And… Read More The good news about bad news

Remember how the Spirit clearly told me that this cancer would be a gift? Well, that gift has taken on a thousand forms—one of which came last fall as I recovered from a year full of surgeries and chemotherapy. I was incapacitated, sitting on my butt in a recliner for weeks on end, thinking about… Read More Out of the Shadow World

Yesterday felt heavy and strange as we closed the door on 2018. What a year. Twelve months ago today, I was recovering from the first of several surgeries and staring chemo in the face. I’d already spent five months hopping from one doctor’s office to another, being jabbed, smashed, scanned, diagnosed, and told what my… Read More Of cancer, gifts, and gratitude

Well, tomorrow is Round 12, my final chemo infusion. It was three months ago today that I went in for my first infusion, with a head full of hair and a cancerous tumor bigger than a golf ball. It was nine months ago that I first discovered that tumor—when it was only the size of… Read More Three months of chemo

Four months ago I found a lump in my breast. And the Spirit clearly said, “This lump is a gift.” ~ ~ ~ This summer was the first time in a decade that I felt well. I started sleeping, I had energy, the aches and pains of chronic illness were minimal. On top of that,… Read More The gift of cancer