January, 18th 2025: Join us for food, drinks, dancing, and author sharing — all to support our mission. Learn more here!
Survivor
My Radiation Tattoos
There was a random Tuesday in May of 2025 where I had to drive to this Brutalist structure in suburban Massachusetts and get some tattoos. Not the fun kind, but three small blue-green dots that would align with precision inside a proton blasting, life saving robotic machine.
Read More...Stolen Glances
Back in November, I attended one of the events Elephants and Tea hosted through the James Cancer Center’s “Care for Life” program. That was where I received my cancer treatments, but truth be told, it took me many years before I actually wanted to attend any kind of support group.
Read More...Dear Cancer, Three Years Have Gone By
Three years have gone by and I still have a radiation mask sitting in my closet that once bolted me down to a cold and tall table. Three years have gone by and I have a box in my bedroom filled with every card, every hospital band, every single tangible item anyone gave to me sitting in my “cancer box” because I can’t seem to get rid of anything.
Read More...Dear Cancer, I Still Hate You
It has been a while since the last time I talked directly to you. After some time needed away after the procedure was done to rip you back out of my life at the same speed it took you to take it over, I am finally ready to address the elephant in the room.
Read More...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
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