Cancer Truth Note: #18

Cancer Truth Note: #18 Second opinions are not disrespectful. Sometimes you are fortunate. You have friends who refer a doctor they love and trust or our trusted doctor refers us to another specialist. You meet them and are comfortable. What they say makes sense and...

Cancer Truth Notes: #17

Cancer Truth Note: #17 People WILL say judgmental things about you and cancer. It’s about them, not you!  People are judgy. My mom told me one day about the daughter of a couple she met who didn’t want the family to tell anyone she had cancer, because people will...

Cancer Truth Note: #16

Cancer Truth Note: #16 People are weird. Especially when it comes to someone else’s cancer. I could have stopped at people are weird. ALL PEOPLE. Yes, even you. When I was in the dating world, I met a lot of interesting people. One day a friend said, these people are...

Cancer Truth Note: #15

Cancer Truth Note: #15 Communication is hard. Communicating about cancer comes with a response burden that needs a warning label. No matter how squared away you think you are about sharing a diagnosis, it is always harder than you think. When I was diagnosed,...

Cancer Truth Note: #14

Cancer Truth Note: #14 Cancer is not your fault. We view so much of life through the lens of fault and shame. No one says I am going to do x so that I get cancer. NO ONE. While you might have a potential causal link or even a likely link, most doctors will tell you we...

Cancer Truth Notes: #13

Cancer Truth Note: #13 Why is this happening? Is a question without an answer. Too often I hear this question from people, sometimes years after a diagnosis. The fact is there is often not a definitive answer. Unless you smoked for decades and have lung cancer or were...