Patient, researcher, student blog.
Living with a slow-growing brain cancer.
There are more than 500 posts here. Use this search to look for something specific. Good luck!
A note about my oldest posts: I began blogging about brain cancer in 2008, at age 29. I had no background or knowledge about healthcare when I started. Please excuse typos and other misconceptions. What you read here is me in real time, like a time capsule.
Four months at a time: living between brain scans
I feel bad blogging about fear and freak outs because it makes me sound like I get down on myself. This isn't true. I just happen to own a space on the Internet where I am allowed to tell the world that living with a slow-growing brain cancer can be scary sometimes.
Baseball: the ultimate cancer therapy
Whenever Tim Lincecum struck out a batter, Buster Posey hit a home run, or Pablo Sandoval wore his hat sideways during a rally, I felt like I was part of something greater than myself. I became one of hundreds of thousands of fans in orange and black who leave their hearts in San Francisco.
Should a 32-year-old with brain cancer save for retirement?
Should one save for retirement when they have an incurable form of cancer with a high mortality rate?
Not dying from cancer: the ultimate imposter syndrome
My friends celebrate the end of my treatment like I'm some sort of badass. I feel like a fraud because I didn't really do anything. I was a participant in the process.
What is family?
Upon hearing the news and finding out that I had a "mass" in my brain, my best friend called her dad. He was in town the next day--asking the important medical questions, demanding answers, advocating on my behalf (because I was too out of it to know what was going on).
