January, 18th 2025: Join us for food, drinks, dancing, and author sharing — all to support our mission. Learn more here!
Survivor
Your Worth
I’ve had a complicated relationship with my body since I was a preteen; I was struggling with my body image alongside a turbulent childhood. This was the perfect storm for the development of an eating disorder, which I struggled with for two years.
Read More...Things I Wish My Doctor Knew
I do not write this to assign blame. I write it because I survived — and survival has given me clarity. There are things I wish my doctor knew. I wish my doctor knew how to calculate my breast cancer risk accurately.
Read More...Words Matter
I wish my doctors knew how powerful their words can be. Whether it’s on a diagnosis day, during treatment, or after treatment, words matter. And they stay with us. “I’m not gonna lie, I’m worried,” my surgeon said after I got that dreaded x-ray of my shoulder in November 2018.
Read More...Five Lessons from a Survivor
Sometimes I wish I could have said the things I was screaming in my head or cried about on the inside, fearful to say out loud. As a master-trained healthcare administrator, adult caregiver, advocate for health equity, and a patient with various conditions, I am no stranger to interacting with doctors.
Read More...A Shadow of My Shadow
Sept. 30, 2020. 11:30 a.m. “It’s cancer” Death, For the last five years, I have thought about nothing but death, death, dying, the act of dying
Read More...Still Here (A Letter to Cancer)
Dear cancer, Your name and “dear” don’t belong together, I’m just being polite. You however, skipped the niceties altogether When you crept into my life
Read More...Dear Cancer, You Are Just a Chapter
You tried it. You came in loud, messy, and ruthless—thinking you could scare me into silence, into surrender. You thought the diagnosis was the end of the story. Plot twist: I’m still here.
Read More...Dear Cancer, Stay Away
Addressing you with an endearing title like “dear” seems inappropriate, and you also get the lowercase “c” most deservingly earned. Let’s not beat around the bush: I hate you.
Read More...The Quiet Battle: Navigating Life After Cancer
“The end of treatment isn’t the end of cancer—it’s the beginning of everything no one warned you about.” I used to think survivorship was the finish line. That once treatment ended, I’d be “back to normal.” I imagined life picking up right where I left it.
Read More...The Second Battle: Rebuilding After Cancer
We spend more than a year—sometimes even longer—fighting every day for our lives through cancer. Then, in remission, our bodies remain on high alert, bracing for the next blow.
Read More...