The Top 25 Ideas Running Through my Jam-Packed Brain
I’ve been relatively quiet on social media the past few months and a few people have reached out to make sure everything is OK. It wasn’t this big, planned out thing, nor was it a social media fast. I didn’t disconnect entirely, just became a little less vocal about...
Won’t You Let Me In?
I have never been a poet. My thoughts come out in paragraphs, not alliterations, allusions, anaphoras and assonance. But I too prefer writing to speaking. The time it takes to type slows and smooths the jumbled edges of my feelings. On the outside I’m scattered...
Hope and Love for a Patient with Suicidal Ideation
Most of my patients are older, but yesterday, I took care of a young man who had jumped in front of a bus. On purpose. He was young, with so much life ahead of him. A boy really. Less than half my age. I wonder what he was thinking as he stepped out in front of that...
How Getting Breast Cancer Helped Me Connect with Patients
At work yesterday I walked into the room of one of my patients in response to his call light, asked him how I could help, smiled and looked him in the eye, as usual. Overcome with emotion, tears sprang to his eyes as he explained that he just felt so anxious and...
How 20 Minutes with my Oncologist Validated my Decision to get a Double Mastectomy for a Stage 0 Cancer
As we followed the medical assistant back to the oncologist’s office, I couldn’t help but notice the curved row of recliners right in the main central corridor of the clinic. They looked out a huge wall of glass to the gorgeous rain-soaked North Scottsdale desert....
Thankful for Silver Linings and Dancing in the Rain
I wrote this article to be published in the January issue of Las Sendas Life magazine, which is distributed in hard copy form to the I-don't-know-how-many thousands of residents in our community each month. It's basically an intro to my Breast Cancer journey and a...
A Super-Stretchy Too-Tight Hot Pink Sports Bra Splattered in Black Paint
I really never wavered in my decision to have a double mastectomy, but as the day approached, and I made my way through my first October - breast cancer awareness month - as a "survivor," I wanted to have some professional photos taken - something to remember “them”...
150 Miles on a Bicycle Saddle and Girl Meets Boy in a Dusty Schoolyard in Gila Bend
Although my life has had a somewhat singular focus recently - breast cancer, getting rid of it and recovering from the getting rid of it - life does still keep going on and on. Kids still get colds and stay home from school. We still have to pay bills and we have to...
Coconut Bikini Under My Skin
Five Days After my Double Mastectomy... It’s Monday morning, the fifth day post-op. And I guess it’s time I give you a little update. I have done nothing but eat, sleep, read, watch shows, be pampered by friends and family, and take pain meds on schedule. (He makes me...
Though I Walk Through the Valley…
This post is the transcript of a short speech I delivered this morning at a women's bible study at our church. The 7-week study started right before my cancer diagnosis and ended the day before my double mastectomy. It played a large part in fueling my peaceful...