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Survivorship
The stories and experiences are written by people after cancer treatments. These stories are written for those learning how to get back to work, college or just trying to be themselves again. Just getting past treatments isn’t enough, it is surviving and thriving that is key to being you again.
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Dear Cancer, Your Pain Made Me Stronger
Now I’ve written a book about my battle with you, so others will have the courage to fight you too. You might have thought you were powerful, but my faith was more powerful than you. I trusted my doctors, and I trusted God; together, you were defeated. You tried to destroy me, but in the end, you only made me stronger.
Read More...Dear Cancer, It’s Been Complicated
Dear Cancer, It’s been complicated. I’m sure a lot of people would like to know how we met. Were we introduced by family (genetics), online dating (Google searching my symptoms), restaurant, or bar (bad eating/too much drinking)?
Read More...Dear Cancer, I Can Handle Anything Because of You
Well, in 2017, I thought life was good. There was so much to look forward to. But Cancer, you chose to show your ugly and repulsive face, at a time when everything in my life was how it should be.
Read More...The Return of the Dear Cancer Magazine
What would you say to cancer if you could write it a letter? That is what this new issue is all about. For those that do not remember and have not been a part of the Herd prior to 2020, we ran our first Dear Cancer issue in December 2019.
Read More...Surviving Survivorship
People often expect that once a cancer survivor’s ordeal is complete, a person should return to their normal daily routine and give thanks for making it through. But in my opinion, survivorship is actually the hardest part of my cancer journey.
Read More...Guilty for Simply Being Alive
As a child I didn’t really understand much of what was going on and what “Having Cancer” really meant. My family did most of the fighting and advocating for me and what I did understand I had been doing it for so long that it was just normal to me.
Read More...How Yoga Helped Me Crush Cancer and Crisis
In 2016, I was diagnosed with Stage 3 rectal cancer a few months short of my 40th birthday. Fast forward to 2020. I’m three years cancer-free – but I was laid off for the first time in my life in the early stages of a global pandemic.
Read More...The Friend That Changed My Life
When I was first diagnosed, I never wanted to leave my room. It wasn’t because I didn’t necessarily feel good. It was because I didn’t want to meet people. At 15, I understood that not all the children on my floor were going to survive.
Read More...Survivor’s Guilt – It’s Up To You
It’s up to you.” I remember the hematologist saying. I have been misdiagnosed in staging and risk for relapse of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Without seeking a second opinion, or treatment options, I now have both and the incredible burden of deciding what treatment to undergo.
Read More...5 Tips For Helping Your Kids Through Your Cancer Treatment
When I was first told that I had cancer, my first thought was the same as most other parents: What about my daughter? I left the doctor’s office with a thick booklet titled, “a Woman’s Guide to Breast Cancer Treatment” and an absolutely blank mind.
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