The Liz Army:
A blog
Patient. Patient advocate. Researcher. Student.
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.
Top 5 Things that are Cool About Brain Surgery
If you have to have brain surgery you might as well bask in a few weeks of love and awesomeness. Here’s my personal top five list.
Top 5 Things that Suck About Brain Surgery
If you have to have brain surgery, here are a few things you should know in advance that might make the experience less than pleasant.
You're not going to die, you know
He asked the same questions. He wondered the same things. I started to cry... perhaps with relief. "You're not going to die, you know."
Back to work anxiety
Without going into too much detail that doesn't really matter, I was brought into a meeting and some comments were made that hurt my feelings. I don't think these comments were made to hurt me on purpose, but they were unfair and cut to the root of everything I have anxiety for in regard to returning to work with cancer and a new job.
Making way for the new me
In the first dream I was cleaning my actual closet in real life. In the second dream I went to the house of someone where I felt like I left items. When I got there I threw away my old things. After I was done, I noticed that their house was messy so I cleaned the whole house for them so they'd come home to a clean house. They thanked me for my work.
What my mom thinks
We never thought of "strong" "healthy" independent Liz as getting sick. We should all be closer, but our lives have taken us in different directions and each of us is very independent and don't ask much of each other.
Oh yeah, I have brain cancer
I realize that I will have brain cancer for the rest of my life. At some point this will not be new, it is just a part of who I am. I suppose all people feel this way when their life changes—they become a parent, the death of a loved one, the passage of a major milestone.