Category Archives: Self Care

How I Took My Life Back From Anxiety After Cancer

I allowed the emotions to visit me because it’s healthy to remember from where and how far you’ve come. Not only to pat myself on the back for my progress but also as continued motivation.

I only stayed there for a very short while; a few minutes at best. It’s not healthy to stay there any longer. It’s in the past and serves no great purpose. Instead, I began thinking about what it took to break the anxiety. Not only learning the lessons of how to be healthier mentally but also to begin putting those lessons into practice.

One of the things I promised myself was I would never lead my life with fear again.

Talking Self-Advocacy, Life Goals and Parenting with Soar Above Cancer

I recently had the honour of sitting down for a virtual chat with Soar Above Cancer; a podcast dedicated to helping cancer survivors. Join us for this discussion where we explore what it was like being a career-focused busy mom whose world came crashing down in an instant, the gift of clarity and purpose as a result, how http://www.SoYouVeGotCancer.ca came to be, parenting with cancer and more!

Why Being Non-Racist Isn’t Enough

As a human who knows what it’s like to feel marginalized by disability, discriminated against, alone, different, in danger, helpless, I hope that you can see the commonalities in the experience of racially marginalized people and just how different we are not. I hope you will join me for this article and the others coming to tackle this issue. I hope you will join this revolution. The time is now.

Reconstructing the World Post-Covid19

Today is the first day I’ve been alone in eight weeks. I simply could not have anticipated how a global pandemic, Covid19 (formerly known as the Coronavirus) would impact me. I mean, going from feeling like the strongest opponent in the world after coming so close to the brink of death, to a near full recovery was an almost euphoric feeling that was quite short lived. In fact, I swore I wasn’t going to write about this. Eight weeks later, here I am, writing about it.

Exercise Oncology with Dr. Scott Adams

Here’s the deal, 75% of Adolescents and Adolescents & Young Adults (AYAs) will experience a chronic disease by the time they are 40 years old and about 50% of all long term survivors will experience moderate to severely diminished health. So, while it’s never too late to start exercising, the sooner the better.

In Pursuit of Repressed Emotions: The Journey Back to My Authentic Self

I used to live life in a box. It was pretty from the outside. Well decorated. It might have looked like the kind of box others might like to live in. I went to lengthy measures to ensure it was well maintained. Inside of that box was all of my fears and on the edgesContinueContinue reading “In Pursuit of Repressed Emotions: The Journey Back to My Authentic Self”

You Want Me To Do WHAT During Treatment?

When you think of what cancer treatment might be like or even what you’ve witnessed in the past, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Sick people laying in a hospital bed? That’s what I thought of. It’s even an accurate depiction of what I had experienced up to the point I was diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia. I’m happy to say, gone are the days of spending all day in a hospital bed during cancer treatment – at least the expectation of. I wore my own clothes in the hospital, cleaned my own body, made my own bed and even used the hospital kitchenette to heat up and eat the home cooked food that others brought for me. All that said, there is nothing that could have prepared me for the day my oncologist told me how much I should be exercising during treatment.

A Call to Action: Injecting Humanity Into Healthcare

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, my oncologist finished with, ‘the prognosis for survival is 90%…as long as you make it through the next 10 days’. What I had just learned was inconceivable no matter how hard I tried to process it. The only thing I could do to prevent myself from going off the deep end was take things one step at a time. Even if that meant one minute to the next. Based on the, ‘as long as you make it though the next 10 days’ part, it was very clear what my first goal would be; live through the next 10 days.

How Complacency Almost Cost Me My Life

As I mentioned in my last article, Cancerversary Turmoil, it’s been a very emotional couple of weeks for me…I’m realizing for my family, people who are very close to me and even some who aren’t always so close too. Christmas now takes on a very different meaning for us all. On Christmas day last year,ContinueContinue reading “How Complacency Almost Cost Me My Life”

Medical Terminology Decoded

I can remember the first day I was admitted to the hospital.  It had been only hours since my diagnosis and there were doctors and nurses everywhere.  Before I knew it, I was taking what seemed like an unlimited number of pills and had three IV lines running at the same time.  As a personContinueContinue reading “Medical Terminology Decoded”