Where to begin? Other than Mom, I’ve known you longer than anyone else on the planet!
Recent Survivor Stories
Survivor Stories
This week... Diane Kenney, breast cancer survivor
Even now, seven months later, I still sometimes feel like this isn’t happening to me, like I am watching someone else go though this life changing experience. But it is real and I know it. Going through chemo removes any doubt about how real this experience is!
A new age of Reformation
I am a melanoma survivor, and I embrace each day now with a clear understanding of the dark abyss of disease and illness from which my medical team saved me. Cancer and chemo therapy are a terrifying storm of confusion, uncertainty and struggle, but with the proper medical solution, there is also hope.
This week... A spouse's Journal, Dick Durrance II
How do we know these things? What is premonition? Fear taking form? Spirits? Jung’s collective unconscious? They are not always right. But sometimes they are. That’s what gives them their power.
Journal, Sue Drinker
“But experiences fade. Sameness will have it’s day, every day. We wake every morning pretty much the same as we were the day before, because that’s how we like it, and because anything else would be scary.” Maybe that is what cancer does to you… it pours you into experience and re-defines sameness. It is more than scary, it is a wake-up call on steroids.
Journal, my journey... Sue Drinker
Just hold on one damn minute… There is nothing “out there” doing anything except what it should be doing… Blowing, shining, whirring, chirping, rustling, bumping and bumbling… everything that was happening in me was totally of my own making… OF MY OWN MAKING… well… then if I can be darkness, can’t I be light?
this week... Janie Reneè May, breast cancer
A few days later my doctor called with the bad news. It was cancer, but the non invasive type. They referred me to Dr. Andrew Morse, surgeon. He did the first lumpectomy on November 16th and told me he was sure he had gotten everything. A couple of days later he called me himself with more bad news. Apparently the path report came back and showed a second type of cancer in the same breast. This time it was the invasive type. So he scheduled me for the second lumpectomy on November 27th. That surgery took a major toll on my left breast. When the bandages came off the left breast was completely concave to where you couldn’t see the nipple.
Welter, Diane...Your Friends for Life
Your Friends for Life is a community of cancer knowledge and support… a group of people with first-hand experience who would not hesitate to get up in the middle of the night to come to the aide of a cancer trauma… an individual, one on one solution which fosters friendships and fulfillment for everyone involved… the patient, the family, the husband or wife and the children who are caught up in the drama without really understanding why their worlds are up-side down.
Host, Carrie... Carcinoid Tumor
I want to inspire people through my book and by giving sincere talks that explore the questions, “How do we do this?” “How do we live our lives without becoming crippled with fear when we are living with a terminal disease?” or “How can we squeeze some happiness from the lemons life may have given us?”
I guess I find it ironic that because cancer rendered me speechless, I’ve found my voice. It’s quieter and stronger than the loud one lost growing up in a large, loving, noisy family. I first recognized it in my Valentine to the President and now, a lifetime later, in the pages of my book.
Schramm, Judy... Breast cancer
A few days after my mastectomy, two little old ladies came into my hospital room, bringing me a bag of helpful items. They told me that they both were survivors for over 25 years and they gave me my first glimmer of hope that I might also survive.
Ensign, Jody... Cervical cancer
1974, the dark ages… We called cancer the “C” word because treatment was no guarantee for a remission, and the chemicals used to battle the disease were harsh and toxic. Having a carcinoma was a very scary and torturous ride through relatively uncharted waters. Then, as now, the primary defense was early detection.
Federman,Carol & Harvey... Uterine & Lymphoma survivors
But I was lucky, I felt healthy and I could get busy. I got on the web, called all the professionals and friends I knew and gathered the best care giving “team” I could find. That’s how I dealt with the panic and uncertainty. Control what I could and hope I could give up control when I needed to. And I did.
Redmond, Lynn... Breast cancer survivor
Survivor since 2004 When I received my breast cancer diagnosis at age 48, I was devastated. Like others, hearing that news feels like a death sentence. I lost my own mother when she was 54 and I have always thought that maybe I would follow her fate. She missed so much of my life, and I just hope that I will be here with my husband and children for many years. The best advice I can give anyone who faces [...]
Burke, Allison... Synovial Sarcoma
I believe now that the guilt of hurting these people that cared about me deeply made me sick, that the ugliness and pain that I had shoved down inside of me literally made me ill. When I was diagnosed, I was instantly reunited with those that I had hurt, and forgiven.
Golbus, Ron... Prostate cancer
What I have learned from the experience is to appreciate how great I have it, to verbally acknowledge how great I have it, and to act more appreciative by doing “the right thing” in all instances… Be nicer, be kinder, be happier…
Be more all the time.
Cooper, Jennifer... Grandulosa cell tumor
Turns out, it is a blessing my appendix was still with me, because it saved my life. I still have it. What I do not have are my ovaries or my fallopian tubes or several lymph nodes and part of my greater omentum.
Perry, Tammy... Breast cancer
In 2005 I had the opportunity to attend the “Casting for Recovery” retreat at Powderhorn Guest Ranch near Gunnison. After 2 1⁄2 years from diagnosis I finally found the true support that I needed to move further along in my recovery.
Yazzolino, Lynda... Metastatic Breast Cancer Stage 4
“Love is the world’s most powerful medicine. It is invisible, abundant, affordable and safe. An antidote to all forms of violence, disability and disease, the healing power of Love can be harnessed and activated by anyone with the right balance of Patience, Humility and Gratitude.”
Joyce Gornick's story, Breast cancer
The sequence of events were, three surgeries, my daughter’s wedding, which I was determined to do, after all, over a course of about 15 years, I had done hundreds of wedding, and now to not be able to do my own daughter’s? This was not an option in my life! I did it all!
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