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.

Surviving Liz Salmi Surviving Liz Salmi

Surprisingly, no pre-scan jitters this time

Dr. L., asked if I would be OK having one of those super long MRIs... the kind that last for over an hour... Since I am a big fan of scans and medical procedures I said, "Hell yeah!" He already thinks I am crazy. Big long scan. New doctor to scrutinize my medical history. Should be interesting.

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Brain surgery: the inside story (pun slightly intended)

I tell people brain surgery is easier than they think. The doctors put you to sleep and then you wake up X-amount of hours later and you never know what happened because you were asleep! You hurt, and you have to take it easy for a long time, and you can't go on any roller coasters for a while, but other than that it is all good.

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Surviving Liz Salmi Surviving Liz Salmi

Creating a positive cancer environment: Stupid Cancer rocks the house

Probably the most amazing moment of all was on the first night I was there. There was a kickoff event in a nightclub for all the young adult cancer survivors and halfway through a beautiful young woman walked up to me and said my name. It took me about five seconds to realize I was looking at Emily, a young brain cancer survivor I met 10 months ago via my blog.

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