“I think I’m going to quit my job, write a book and maybe do some public speaking.” Finally, the nurse looked at me as she handed me a little cup with at least 10 pills in it. She said, “That sounds great but how about we get through today first.” I thought that was fair. But I decided, all the same, that I wanted to help people entering the Canadian healthcare system get the help they needed and deserved. I would make the sector jump from investments to healthcare with the fiery purpose of improving patient experiences because what I had endured and was yet to experience should NEVER have happened. And yet it did.
Category Archives: Healthcare
The Future is Bright
The future is bright! This is what I have told myself over the last year every time I have dragged myself out of the pit of darkness, enough to reach up and brush my fingers against the warmth of hope. I have had to frequently remind myself that hope still exists because I couldn’t tolerateContinueContinue reading “The Future is Bright”
The Road to Courageous Living – Official Launch
It’s here! It’s here! Today is an exciting day. My very first non-fiction book, The Road to Courageous Living: Learning Audacious Self-Love and the Skills to Harness Personal Success, has officially launched on Amazon and Kindle!!! I have spent significant time in reflection over the last few weeks as I prepared for this awesome day,ContinueContinue reading “The Road to Courageous Living – Official Launch”
The Road to Courageous Living
Sitting in that hospital bed, being checked over and over again for signs of bleeding in my brain, I thought about how unhappy I was. I had spent my life believing that achieving success meant following a specific formula. It was something like, work as hard as you can to make lots of money so you can have lots of expensive things and then you’ll be happy. At times, the knowing that the life I was living was not meant for me would bubble up but I would push it back down because I had worked so hard to become that version of myself-the version I thought I was supposed to be. Yet, at that moment, when the likelihood of my continued existence was bleak, I could no longer deny what I had always known. That everything I believed would make me feel happy and fulfilled was total bullshit.
To the nurse standing by my bed, I proclaimed, “I’ve lived my entire life doing the things I believed I needed to do to be successful and I realize now it was all a lie. When we’re done here, I’m going to write a book and tell the whole world. They need to know that they don’t have to live by anyone’s standards but their own.”
Nearly five years later, that’s exactly what I did. Introducing, The Road to Courageous Living: Learning Audacious Self-Love and the Skills to Harness Personal Success, available for pre-order on Amazon and Kindle on October 18th!
Talking Shit and How to Fix it
I did not know much about cancer, or the side effects of treatment before I myself was diagnosed. I expected I would feel sick often, my hair would fall out and I would likely not be able to taste properly or at all. What I did not consider, until the very moment it became my reality is that chemotherapy would wreak havoc on my gastrointestinal system. If we stop to think about it, it makes perfect sense. All of that toxic liquid is being pumped into our veins and like anything else, it’s gotta come out one way or the other!
Join me for more on my cancer recovery and why it is so important to self-advocate.
Gambling with Human Chips in the Covid Era
Imagine a lone potential criminal debating murder openly – and it’s an acceptable open debate. A random, innocent person who did nothing to inflame someone enough to elicit such a contemplation who has to listen to their potential attacker debate whether they should go through with their heinous, unthinkable act. Whether the attempt was made or not, the fact is that the potential victim is already aware that someone wants to do them harm. Such an experience could lead to a lifetime of looking over ones shoulder, waiting for them to change their mind. It could be the end of their feeling of safety in the world.
I spent days incredulous, trying to make sense of the senseless. I knew that even sympathizers could not truly understand what I was feeling. I had to do something about it.
Ambivalence: Friend or Foe?
I felt guilty for doing what was natural to me all too often; sharing. I heard it often enough that it became part of my internal dialogue. I started scolding myself for sharing, questioning everything I said to my friends, and at times even felt shame for sharing. At some point over the years, I decided to give myself grace and settled into the type of comfort only people who genuinely know and love themselves can understand. After my diagnosis, I began noticing how people reacted to my honesty. It is no surprise that people are uncomfortable with talking about ‘the big C’. I am acutely aware of this, as I used to be one of those people. I also recognized that people just do not like the feeling of experiencing someone else’s negative feelings. It’s never pleasant and many people default to fixers. Still, I had this driving need to honor myself, to speak my truth, and, maybe most importantly in this case, to raise awareness of an illness I never even knew existed until I was sitting in front of a doctor telling me I had it.
Overcoming the Whispers of Self-Doubt
On December 8th 2020, I published an article called Three Years Later. It was an unplanned release motived by the realization that the next day would be the three year anniversary of my cancer diagnosis; my cancerversary. It was 9:30pm on Monday December 7th and I was trying to will myself to sleep so IContinueContinue reading “Overcoming the Whispers of Self-Doubt”
(In)Coherent Ramblings and Renewed Focus
Happy New Year! Yes, I realize it’s twenty four days into the new year but do you think good wishes for the new year will ever get old this year? I think not. We have weathered the worse storm my generation, the one after me and before me will every experience. While there were aContinueContinue reading “(In)Coherent Ramblings and Renewed Focus”
Three Years Later
It was three years ago, right this very moment, I sat on the side of my bed, covered in bruises, blood vessels bursting, hemorrhaging, on the phone with TeleHealth to ask them if they thought I should go to work or not. I intended on going. I had already missed a full week in the office for the muscle I had locked in my hip days before. I didn’t want to miss anymore time at work.
It was easy to pass it off as not a big deal. Like I was being a big baby. I should just suck it up because duty calls.
So You've Got Cancer 