Dec. 15, 2015, is a day Patrick Koennecke will never forget. Now, he simply refers to it as “the date.” The 60-year-old Waxahachie, Texas, resident and warehouse manager was recovering from major back surgery when he began to notice a pain in his upper stomach on the left side. He described it as a broken … Continue reading Pancreatic cancer survivor thankful for clinical trial that saved his life
It is said that you cannot change your circumstances, so in order to make peace with them, you must change the way you react to them. Receiving a cancer diagnosis was a circumstance that I could not change. The harder I tried to push it away from me, the more fear surrounded the reality that … Continue reading How my cancer diagnosis taught me to live in the present
Today, more and more women are surviving breast cancer, which means more and more are concerned about what life after treatment looks like. It’s a problem created by our own success — because more women are surviving, we’re now looking for ways to support them as they get back to their lives post-cancer. Fighting cancer … Continue reading 5 things you need to know about pregnancy after breast cancer
Winning your battle with breast cancer is a huge victory and while you may just want to get back to the life you had before, you might worry that everything won’t be the same. You could be faced with lingering symptoms or be concerned about a recurrence. Rest assured that your fears and worries are … Continue reading 4 ways survivors can look forward after breast cancer
When diagnosed with a life-threatening disease, you have two choices: You can choose to fight, or you can choose to succumb to fear. Fighters challenge illness, embracing treatment and facing the obstacle of an uphill battle to better health. But as fighters become survivors, it’s not uncommon for them to glance in the rearview mirror out of … Continue reading Fear of recurrence as an illness
My 21-year-old self would have never imagined not only living this long, but to have REALLY lived. No, I guess I never thought I would die. But, after being told three separate times that I had a life-threatening disease, I struggled with envisioning a life beyond infusion rooms, anesthesia, and needles puncturing my flesh inviting … Continue reading Cancer survivor celebrates life after lymphoma in a big way
When I was 24, I was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), a rare blood cancer with a median diagnosis age of 65 years old. Every visit to the oncology office reinforced this statistic. There were older individuals, and there was me. These experiences made me feel like cancer was irrelevant, and the disconnect eventually became a … Continue reading The Power of Connection: How Peer Support Can Dramatically Change Your Cancer Experience
As a breast cancer survivor, Leslie Williams felt grateful to be alive. She also felt confusion about her disease triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), a type of cancer that seems to affect women of color more than other ethnic groups. TNBC is named because the breast cancer cells test negative for estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors and HER2. … Continue reading Survivors on Purpose – Breast Cancer Heroes Come Together
This blog post is part of the Google+ Healthy Hangouts series on breaking and timely health news. Did you hear the news about Angelina Jolie? She recently announced in the New York Times that she tested positive for the BRCA-1 genetic mutation which dramatically increases her risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer. Given that information, she … Continue reading WATCH: Explaining the Reasons Behind Angelina Jolie’s Decision
Nobody can predict how prostate cancer will affect you. Sure, physicians are skilled at treating the medical condition with a host of therapies such as minimally invasive robotic surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and many other techniques. But, the how-am-I-going-to-get-through-this, part is largely up to you. When I was diagnosed, I realized that if I didn’t get a … Continue reading 3 Prostate Cancer Combat Tips
