Chemo Side Effects: Chemo Fatigue

Chemo Side Effects: Chemo Fatigue

Most people donโ€™t like a one-upper. Weโ€™ve all met them โ€“ someone who always, regardless of the topic, has to have the final say. Perhaps she had the worst illness, or he had attended the best college, or she had the worst boyfriend, or he had the absolute bestest...
A Constellation of Scars

A Constellation of Scars

My radiation was put on hold for two days. ย  Two days further behind schedule because my radiation marks had shifted and warped. Rather than a thin, straight line so my doctor could pinpoint my treatment down to the millimeter, I had a pudgy, drunken curve covered in...
Mary’s Place by the Sea Cancer Retreat

Mary’s Place by the Sea Cancer Retreat

Along the Jersey Shore lies the modest, charming town of Ocean Grove. Its small-town feel and Victorian architecture seem a direct contrast to the stereotypical notion of a Jersey beach town. And yet this town, with its humble beginnings as a Methodist campsite in...
Knitting for Healing

Knitting for Healing

Knitting is one of those activities that can easily shift from the general category of โ€œhobbyโ€ to something deeper, a coping mechanism, without your ever becoming aware of the change. Somewhere it transitions from knitting for fun to knitting for healing. ย  For...
The Awkward Traveler

The Awkward Traveler

I have friends who have traveled to countless countries, camping their way through Africa or in the jungles of India. Theyโ€™ve navigated the terrain on their own without a guide or knowledge of the language. And each time theyโ€™ve returned home in one piece and with an...
Hair Loss and Chemo

Hair Loss and Chemo

Tell any woman sheโ€™ll have to have chemotherapy and one of her first thoughts will be about chemo hair loss.ย  We live in a society where a lot of feminine identity is based on our hair. Is it long enough? Straight enough? Curly enough? Too gray? Too wild? You donโ€™t...
Radiation Treatment and Deodorant

Radiation Treatment and Deodorant

Can we just be honest for a minute? How many of you actually wore deodorant after your first couple weeks of radiation? ย  Because for serious yโ€™all, wearing deodorant on sore armpits is hard! ย  When I first started radiation treatment I wore deodorant, like any...