On Saturday, July 27th, 2013, AnneMarie of Chemo-Brain fame celebrated seven years of living with NED (No Evidence of Disease) post-breast cancer. Of this milestone, AnneMarie reflects...
Healing and dealing with life after a breast cancer diagnosis.
Showing posts with label breast cancer bloggers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label breast cancer bloggers. Show all posts
Monday, July 29, 2013
Sunday, April 28, 2013
9 METASTATIC BREAST CANCER MAVENS
DAY 25's challenge: Share something from another health activist that everyone should know. (Only something? I've too many 'somethings' to share.)
Here are 9 of my favorite MBC bloggers. To read more of their work, just click on their blog links and SHOW THEM SOME LOVE!!
Last week, Jody Schoger — beloved co-founder and member of the Breast Cancer Social Media group #BCSM — revealed she has metastatic breast cancer (MBC) after having no evidence of disease (NED) for 15 years. Yes you heard that right: 15 years later she became metastatic.The blogosphere was abuzz with shock and love and support for Jody. Unfortunately Jody is far from alone; 155,000 Americans are living with MBC right now. Since Day 28's challenge is to create a must-follow list on a single social network, I'm focusing on bloggers with metastatic breast cancer. I know there are many MBC bloggers out there; if you have an MBC blog and aren't listed below, please leave a comment in the section for a future post. :-)
Here are 9 of my favorite MBC bloggers. To read more of their work, just click on their blog links and SHOW THEM SOME LOVE!!
Friday, October 12, 2012
MENTAL MALADIES, POST CANCER
In honor of the 2nd Annual World Mental Health Day, I'm joining the blogging party (albeit a bit late) in an effort to shed some light on emotional health following a cancer diagnosis.
I'm not a medical professional, but I'm pretty sure whatever mental maladies you struggled with pre-cancer will be exacerbated post-cancer. Your usual coping tools will no longer work. Fasten seat belts. Gonna be a bumpy ride.
NOT READY, NOT SET, GOTTA GO Pre-cancer, exercise was an effective form of mental and emotional therapy for me; it helped to reduce my overall anxiety (I have always been a worrier). Post-cancer I wanted this to be the same. But after a double mastectomy, reconstruction and subsequent healing complications, movement and lifting restrictions by my doctor meant I couldn't exercise for long stretches of time. As in, months at a time (aside from walking, big whoop there). Suddenly my exercise tool was missing from my toolbox. And as you know, being inactive and burning fewer calories leads to weight gain. (Ten pounds over here.) That means more anxiety, 'cause extra weight is a risk factor not only in getting breast cancer, but in recurrence as well.
What I didn't see coming was the lack of energy brought on by a cancer diagnosis. Dealing with having cancer is obviously very emotionally depleting. Your world is turned completely upside down, you spend more time in doctor's offices than you do with your friends, and you have to practically enroll in medical school to understand what's going on in your body. (My brother calls it getting my WebMD degree.) Tack on surgeries, treatment, Tamoxifen, and the lethargy that comes from being in bed and just laying low (my BC sistahs who had chemo and/or radiation really suffer in this department)... well, you can see how easy it is to gain weight.
Some people find that they lose their appetite during times of extreme duress. Some find their appetite increases. I have experienced both of these. When you're healing, it's vitally important to eat healthy, high-protein foods. So you have to keep eating. For anyone who has ever tried to numb a bad (or good) emotion with food, this is tricky territory. My primary care physician set me straight regarding feeling bad about my extra pounds; he looked me straight in the eye and said, "Now is not the time to be dieting." What I heard? "Go ahead, eat the ice cream."
You might be thinking Hey, I can always burn off a few extra calories in the bedroom. And that might have been true pre-cancer. But lopping off body parts chews you up and spits you out onto a very dark and harrowing road, one that takes a loooooong time to find your way back from. So if you had any Body Image Issues before cancer (and lets face it, who didn't?), you'd better grab your crash helmet, 'cause you live in B.I.I. town now —where life is always under construction.
All this post-cancer anxiety may make you want to self-medicate by adding a little wine to your whine. And who could blame you? But you know pain killers and drinking make a bad marriage. You might also be tempted to keep up the pain pills even though you're not really in that much pain today. (Again, who could blame you?) But please be careful on these slippery slopes. Restrict that bad-girl behavior to a few hours, not a few weeks or months, please.
This leads me to getting a good night's sleep. Remember those innocent moments before you were diagnosed, when you'd be laying in the dark, waiting for sweet slumber to strike? Cancer strips you of that tender time. Cancer steals your sleep and hack-saws your dreams. Nighttime becomes terror time, just like when you were a little kid, except now the scary things are no longer just in your imagination. Knocking yourself out with pharmacology is often the only way to get a good night's sleep post cancer, I am afraid to say. I have had good results with melatonin too. (Always check with your doctor before taking any Rx aids, OTC or otherwise.)
As you can see, a cancer diagnosis has very little positive effect on your mental and emotional health. That's why you need to be prepared.
WHAT NOBODY TELLS YOU
When you're in attack-and-recover mode, all of the above anxieties are going on all at once. And you somehow get through it — with the (hopefully) loving support of family and friends who bring you food and flowers and cards and comfort whenever they call or stop by, which is (again, hopefully) often. Their attention and distraction enable you to temporarily cope emotionally. But what happens if you don't have such a good support system? What happens when you have to struggle through a lot of this s*** alone? And what happens when the people you have come to depend on are no longer dependable because they need to get back to their own lives? What happens then?
Ah, the frightful secret: On the heels of healing comes disappointment — in ourselves, our bodies, our minds, our friends, our family, our life. Because, let's face it, everyone wants to get back to "normal." They need to get back to normal. And eventually that is what they all do, because they have to. And you? Well, you'll never get back to "normal." You have to find your new normal. And that sucks most of all.
So you gotta figure out which new tools you need in that lovely emotional toolbox of yours.
The first crucial thing I did to counter my mental maladies was to surround myself with other women who were diagnosed with breast cancer at the same time as I was. I joined an online group at BCO and seven of us then started our own closed Facebook group. I call these wonderful women my rubies; I wrote about them here. And I couldn't have made it through all this BC crap without them. They understand everything I am going through. They lift me up in my darkest hour and cheer me on in my happiest moments. We are always there to listen to each other, 24/7. Though we live in different parts of the country, I was fortunate enough to meet two of my rubies this year, and hope to meet the rest of these wonderful women in 2013.
The second crucial thing I did for my emotional health was to start this blog. In the beginning I was writing to no one, for no one. Because no one knew I had started this thing. Very few people who knew me in "real" life knew I was blogging about life post-cancer. I didn't tell them because I needed to feel free to write about whatever was troubling me without worrying that someone might be offended. Of course, that still happened anyway. (One of my closest friends told another close friend, Be careful what you tell her, or she'll blog about you!) Oh well. The point of this blog was never to please anyone other than me. Call it selfish; call it self-preservation. I needed to get my thoughts and fears and experiences out of my head; it was literally the only way I could make sense out of what I was going through. Writing it out somehow brought me great clarity.
What I didn't expect was to find a rich, wonderfully supportive breast cancer blogging community out here in cyber city. Oh my! Besides finding my rubies, this has been my greatest post-cancer joy. While I have yet to meet any of my "bloggy" friends in person, I feel a great kinship to a great many of them. Just take a look under my "Favorites" heading to find some really inspiring ladies, and even a few men. They work through their mental maladies daily. I'm willing to bet they can help you too.
I still haven't told the majority of people in my "real" life about this blog. And of the ones I have told, very few read it. (Guess you have to have gone through cancer in order to truly relate to it.) So while I don't even know who is reading this, I know that you live in 87 countries around the world and counting. And that completely blows my mind.
Blogging has become a positively essential outlet for my emotional health. I'm hoping it helps you in some way, too. Isn't that what community is all about?
I'm not a medical professional, but I'm pretty sure whatever mental maladies you struggled with pre-cancer will be exacerbated post-cancer. Your usual coping tools will no longer work. Fasten seat belts. Gonna be a bumpy ride.
NOT READY, NOT SET, GOTTA GO Pre-cancer, exercise was an effective form of mental and emotional therapy for me; it helped to reduce my overall anxiety (I have always been a worrier). Post-cancer I wanted this to be the same. But after a double mastectomy, reconstruction and subsequent healing complications, movement and lifting restrictions by my doctor meant I couldn't exercise for long stretches of time. As in, months at a time (aside from walking, big whoop there). Suddenly my exercise tool was missing from my toolbox. And as you know, being inactive and burning fewer calories leads to weight gain. (Ten pounds over here.) That means more anxiety, 'cause extra weight is a risk factor not only in getting breast cancer, but in recurrence as well.
What I didn't see coming was the lack of energy brought on by a cancer diagnosis. Dealing with having cancer is obviously very emotionally depleting. Your world is turned completely upside down, you spend more time in doctor's offices than you do with your friends, and you have to practically enroll in medical school to understand what's going on in your body. (My brother calls it getting my WebMD degree.) Tack on surgeries, treatment, Tamoxifen, and the lethargy that comes from being in bed and just laying low (my BC sistahs who had chemo and/or radiation really suffer in this department)... well, you can see how easy it is to gain weight.
Some people find that they lose their appetite during times of extreme duress. Some find their appetite increases. I have experienced both of these. When you're healing, it's vitally important to eat healthy, high-protein foods. So you have to keep eating. For anyone who has ever tried to numb a bad (or good) emotion with food, this is tricky territory. My primary care physician set me straight regarding feeling bad about my extra pounds; he looked me straight in the eye and said, "Now is not the time to be dieting." What I heard? "Go ahead, eat the ice cream."
You might be thinking Hey, I can always burn off a few extra calories in the bedroom. And that might have been true pre-cancer. But lopping off body parts chews you up and spits you out onto a very dark and harrowing road, one that takes a loooooong time to find your way back from. So if you had any Body Image Issues before cancer (and lets face it, who didn't?), you'd better grab your crash helmet, 'cause you live in B.I.I. town now —where life is always under construction.
All this post-cancer anxiety may make you want to self-medicate by adding a little wine to your whine. And who could blame you? But you know pain killers and drinking make a bad marriage. You might also be tempted to keep up the pain pills even though you're not really in that much pain today. (Again, who could blame you?) But please be careful on these slippery slopes. Restrict that bad-girl behavior to a few hours, not a few weeks or months, please.
This leads me to getting a good night's sleep. Remember those innocent moments before you were diagnosed, when you'd be laying in the dark, waiting for sweet slumber to strike? Cancer strips you of that tender time. Cancer steals your sleep and hack-saws your dreams. Nighttime becomes terror time, just like when you were a little kid, except now the scary things are no longer just in your imagination. Knocking yourself out with pharmacology is often the only way to get a good night's sleep post cancer, I am afraid to say. I have had good results with melatonin too. (Always check with your doctor before taking any Rx aids, OTC or otherwise.)
As you can see, a cancer diagnosis has very little positive effect on your mental and emotional health. That's why you need to be prepared.
WHAT NOBODY TELLS YOU
When you're in attack-and-recover mode, all of the above anxieties are going on all at once. And you somehow get through it — with the (hopefully) loving support of family and friends who bring you food and flowers and cards and comfort whenever they call or stop by, which is (again, hopefully) often. Their attention and distraction enable you to temporarily cope emotionally. But what happens if you don't have such a good support system? What happens when you have to struggle through a lot of this s*** alone? And what happens when the people you have come to depend on are no longer dependable because they need to get back to their own lives? What happens then?
Ah, the frightful secret: On the heels of healing comes disappointment — in ourselves, our bodies, our minds, our friends, our family, our life. Because, let's face it, everyone wants to get back to "normal." They need to get back to normal. And eventually that is what they all do, because they have to. And you? Well, you'll never get back to "normal." You have to find your new normal. And that sucks most of all.
So you gotta figure out which new tools you need in that lovely emotional toolbox of yours.
The first crucial thing I did to counter my mental maladies was to surround myself with other women who were diagnosed with breast cancer at the same time as I was. I joined an online group at BCO and seven of us then started our own closed Facebook group. I call these wonderful women my rubies; I wrote about them here. And I couldn't have made it through all this BC crap without them. They understand everything I am going through. They lift me up in my darkest hour and cheer me on in my happiest moments. We are always there to listen to each other, 24/7. Though we live in different parts of the country, I was fortunate enough to meet two of my rubies this year, and hope to meet the rest of these wonderful women in 2013.
The second crucial thing I did for my emotional health was to start this blog. In the beginning I was writing to no one, for no one. Because no one knew I had started this thing. Very few people who knew me in "real" life knew I was blogging about life post-cancer. I didn't tell them because I needed to feel free to write about whatever was troubling me without worrying that someone might be offended. Of course, that still happened anyway. (One of my closest friends told another close friend, Be careful what you tell her, or she'll blog about you!) Oh well. The point of this blog was never to please anyone other than me. Call it selfish; call it self-preservation. I needed to get my thoughts and fears and experiences out of my head; it was literally the only way I could make sense out of what I was going through. Writing it out somehow brought me great clarity.
What I didn't expect was to find a rich, wonderfully supportive breast cancer blogging community out here in cyber city. Oh my! Besides finding my rubies, this has been my greatest post-cancer joy. While I have yet to meet any of my "bloggy" friends in person, I feel a great kinship to a great many of them. Just take a look under my "Favorites" heading to find some really inspiring ladies, and even a few men. They work through their mental maladies daily. I'm willing to bet they can help you too.
I still haven't told the majority of people in my "real" life about this blog. And of the ones I have told, very few read it. (Guess you have to have gone through cancer in order to truly relate to it.) So while I don't even know who is reading this, I know that you live in 87 countries around the world and counting. And that completely blows my mind.
Blogging has become a positively essential outlet for my emotional health. I'm hoping it helps you in some way, too. Isn't that what community is all about?
Sunday, April 29, 2012
BLOGGY AWARDS!
Day 28 of the WEGO Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge — just 3 more days to go! Today's task is to finish this sentence: "The First Time I..." So I'll tell you about the first time I received a blog award from a fellow blogger.
Michelle (from Ramblings of a Peacock) found me floating in the ethers of the internet last November and gave me a "One Lovely Blog" nod here. Unfamiliar with the concept (and knee-deep in preparing for yet another surgery), I thanked her, promptly posted the award on my blog, and did nothing further. (Technically I'm to nominate 15 newly discovered blogs, and reveal 7 tidbits about myself. You can see why I chose to do nothing!)
But then it happened again. Yesterday, Launna from Letters From Launna gave me "The Versatile Blogger Award." How nice is that? So I chose "bloggers bestowing bloggers" as my "first time" for two reasons:
1) It's the first time I've received any kind of anything for blogging; and
2) neither Michelle nor Launna are cancer survivors. They're both moms who write about things that inspire them. The fact that they found a blog written by someone going through breast cancer interesting and inspiring enough to not only keep reading but to give a bloggy award? Pretty amazing.
I'm bending the rules a bit ... while some of the blogs below are new to me, others I'm listing just 'cause I love 'um. (For more of my favorites, see "Big C Favorites" at left.) I'm also only listing 11 blog winners (rather than 15) for each award because, well, 11 seems like a good number. And I'll spare you the 7 tidbits about me. Each blog below is linked, so feel free to click away!
1) Yvonne of Time to Consider the Lilies is a transplanted Irishwoman living in Arizona and writing about her breast cancer experience with great grace and wisdom.
2) Nancy of Nancy's Point fame always has great points to share. She lost her mom to breast cancer and writes of her own BC journey from a lovely lake in Wisconsin.
3) Shortly after Liz of Paw-Paw Salad moved from Sydney to Darwin (in Australia's remote Northern Territory), she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Liz recently started blogging in her special corner of the world; stop by, say hi!
4) Follow Terri at A Fresh Chapter on her Adventure of Hope as she volunteers her way around the globe learning how cancer affects folks in third-world countries.
5) Cynthia of The River and the Sea blogs about life post-inflammatory breast cancer, and compiles a Monday post full of the latest health links.
6) Delightful Rachel at Ticking Time Bombs is a 21-year-old college student in Los Angeles who had a prophylactic mastectomy after testing positive for the BRCA gene. She is experiencing complications from her reconstruction surgery so please show her some bloggy love!
7) Mina at The World According to the Little Fish is a busy mom in Idaho juggling adoption, her husband's health and the recent death of her mom from cancer.
8) Sandra from Tales of a Golf Gal is a southern mom (and grand mom) who writes about golf, decorating, and her fight with sarcoma.
9) Nancy over at The Pink Underbelly is a BC survivor living in Texas with her family and numerous pets, including a pot-bellied pig. Nancy puts the spunk in spunky!
10) Canadian Carrie at Our Journey blogs about life as a mom of three, complete with caring for her youngest, who was born with a congenital heart defect. Carrie recently had a breast cancer scare. All is B9. (YAY!)
"THE VERSATILE BLOGGER AWARD" GOES TO:
1) AnneMarie at Chemo-Brain is a breast cancer survivor with family history who is on a mission: to educate the masses about BC and pink ribbon syndrome. She has more rants than you can shake a New Yawk stick at. Love her!
Michelle (from Ramblings of a Peacock) found me floating in the ethers of the internet last November and gave me a "One Lovely Blog" nod here. Unfamiliar with the concept (and knee-deep in preparing for yet another surgery), I thanked her, promptly posted the award on my blog, and did nothing further. (Technically I'm to nominate 15 newly discovered blogs, and reveal 7 tidbits about myself. You can see why I chose to do nothing!)
But then it happened again. Yesterday, Launna from Letters From Launna gave me "The Versatile Blogger Award." How nice is that? So I chose "bloggers bestowing bloggers" as my "first time" for two reasons:
1) It's the first time I've received any kind of anything for blogging; and
2) neither Michelle nor Launna are cancer survivors. They're both moms who write about things that inspire them. The fact that they found a blog written by someone going through breast cancer interesting and inspiring enough to not only keep reading but to give a bloggy award? Pretty amazing.
I'm bending the rules a bit ... while some of the blogs below are new to me, others I'm listing just 'cause I love 'um. (For more of my favorites, see "Big C Favorites" at left.) I'm also only listing 11 blog winners (rather than 15) for each award because, well, 11 seems like a good number. And I'll spare you the 7 tidbits about me. Each blog below is linked, so feel free to click away!
DRUM ROLL PLEASE.
"ONE LOVELY BLOG AWARD" GOES TO:1) Yvonne of Time to Consider the Lilies is a transplanted Irishwoman living in Arizona and writing about her breast cancer experience with great grace and wisdom.
2) Nancy of Nancy's Point fame always has great points to share. She lost her mom to breast cancer and writes of her own BC journey from a lovely lake in Wisconsin.
3) Shortly after Liz of Paw-Paw Salad moved from Sydney to Darwin (in Australia's remote Northern Territory), she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Liz recently started blogging in her special corner of the world; stop by, say hi!
4) Follow Terri at A Fresh Chapter on her Adventure of Hope as she volunteers her way around the globe learning how cancer affects folks in third-world countries.
5) Cynthia of The River and the Sea blogs about life post-inflammatory breast cancer, and compiles a Monday post full of the latest health links.
6) Delightful Rachel at Ticking Time Bombs is a 21-year-old college student in Los Angeles who had a prophylactic mastectomy after testing positive for the BRCA gene. She is experiencing complications from her reconstruction surgery so please show her some bloggy love!
7) Mina at The World According to the Little Fish is a busy mom in Idaho juggling adoption, her husband's health and the recent death of her mom from cancer.
8) Sandra from Tales of a Golf Gal is a southern mom (and grand mom) who writes about golf, decorating, and her fight with sarcoma.
9) Nancy over at The Pink Underbelly is a BC survivor living in Texas with her family and numerous pets, including a pot-bellied pig. Nancy puts the spunk in spunky!
10) Canadian Carrie at Our Journey blogs about life as a mom of three, complete with caring for her youngest, who was born with a congenital heart defect. Carrie recently had a breast cancer scare. All is B9. (YAY!)
11) Sarah at Being Sarah writes of loss, love, breast cancer — and the healing power of a good British garden.
ANOTHER DRUM ROLL PLEASE.
1) AnneMarie at Chemo-Brain is a breast cancer survivor with family history who is on a mission: to educate the masses about BC and pink ribbon syndrome. She has more rants than you can shake a New Yawk stick at. Love her!
2) Marie lives in Ireland and is the brains behind Journeying Beyond Breast Cancer, the website that has helped so many BC bloggers discover and connect with one other via her Friday Roundups. Concise, witty and always wise: That's our Marie!
3) Jan at Mourning Has Broken is a former patent attorney turned breast cancer and lymphedema advocate, and a steadfast blogger since 2008.
4) Shannon at Green Monkey Tales writes from Connecticut with great comedic tension about life in BC land. And it's a delightfully raucous ride!
5) Kathi is The Accidental Amazon! She's also the sass behind the "Grumblers for the Cure" — and there is nothing accidental about her viewpoint. Vim and vigor abound on her breast cancer blog.
6) Stacey at Bringing Up Goliath is a mom writing about breast cancer and loss in all its imperfections and shades of gray.
7) Alli at Life in Transition blogs about her fight with Stage III breast cancer as she transitions into a new life on her own.
8) Beth at Calling the Shots is a self-described cancer thriver and patient advocate with plenty to teach us on how to stand up for ourselves as patients.
9) Cathleen over at My Half-Glassed Life lives in South Carolina and writes with wit and wonder about cancer and widowhood.
10) Catherine at Bumpy Boobs is "laughing, chatting, doodling and ranting" about her dance with breast cancer at the age of 27.
11) Ann at But Doctor... I Hate Pink is fighting the wild west of metastatic breast cancer in California. Her blog chronicles the ups, the downs, the everything in-betweens of life first as a Stage II and now Stage IV patient. Her signature humor is evident in every post. Follow her!
3) Jan at Mourning Has Broken is a former patent attorney turned breast cancer and lymphedema advocate, and a steadfast blogger since 2008.
4) Shannon at Green Monkey Tales writes from Connecticut with great comedic tension about life in BC land. And it's a delightfully raucous ride!
5) Kathi is The Accidental Amazon! She's also the sass behind the "Grumblers for the Cure" — and there is nothing accidental about her viewpoint. Vim and vigor abound on her breast cancer blog.
6) Stacey at Bringing Up Goliath is a mom writing about breast cancer and loss in all its imperfections and shades of gray.
7) Alli at Life in Transition blogs about her fight with Stage III breast cancer as she transitions into a new life on her own.
8) Beth at Calling the Shots is a self-described cancer thriver and patient advocate with plenty to teach us on how to stand up for ourselves as patients.
9) Cathleen over at My Half-Glassed Life lives in South Carolina and writes with wit and wonder about cancer and widowhood.
10) Catherine at Bumpy Boobs is "laughing, chatting, doodling and ranting" about her dance with breast cancer at the age of 27.
11) Ann at But Doctor... I Hate Pink is fighting the wild west of metastatic breast cancer in California. Her blog chronicles the ups, the downs, the everything in-betweens of life first as a Stage II and now Stage IV patient. Her signature humor is evident in every post. Follow her!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
THE RUBIES
In the spirit of a new year (and inspired by my blogging pal Marie's thought-provoking queries), I want to open 2012 with a question. Anyone reading this post has either been diagnosed with cancer or knows someone who has. It doesn't matter if you are in the former or the latter group; our collective world is shattered and splintered by The Big C.
But among the fallout and the rubble of cancer come The Rubies — the people who keep us grounded, or safe, or sane, or distracted, or engaged during all the rolling ruckus.
The Rubies are there at the right time, in the right place, and we have the foresight to recognize them as the rare gems they truly are.
As a person dodging the minefield of cancer, I am fortunate to have many Rubies. And without the internet I would never have "met" the majority of them. I count among my Rubies the courageous cancer bloggers who are telling their tale with honesty and humor and bravado. They paint a deeper, fuller, more complex and truthful picture of cancer in all its crazy colors — and we all can benefit from their wisdom. I feel stronger and less alone in my struggles because of them. And so I say thank you to the women and men of the blogosphere.
I also am lucky to have Rubies in the form of a group of women I met online at BCO. We are seven in total, and range in age from 27 to 53. We all were diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of 2010. Five out of seven of us had bilateral mastectomies; one had a single mastectomy; one had a lumpectomy. Three had chemotherapy; five are on Tamoxifen. No one lives near the other (though some ladies did manage to meet in 2011) and I have yet to meet these fair maidens myself, but we "talk" every day. They are my lifeline, my sanity, and my strength. And so to my six Rubies, I say thank you for always being there. I couldn't do this journey without you.
But getting back to you, dear reader: Who was/is your Ruby when you were dealing with The Big C in your life?
But among the fallout and the rubble of cancer come The Rubies — the people who keep us grounded, or safe, or sane, or distracted, or engaged during all the rolling ruckus.
The Rubies are there at the right time, in the right place, and we have the foresight to recognize them as the rare gems they truly are.
As a person dodging the minefield of cancer, I am fortunate to have many Rubies. And without the internet I would never have "met" the majority of them. I count among my Rubies the courageous cancer bloggers who are telling their tale with honesty and humor and bravado. They paint a deeper, fuller, more complex and truthful picture of cancer in all its crazy colors — and we all can benefit from their wisdom. I feel stronger and less alone in my struggles because of them. And so I say thank you to the women and men of the blogosphere.
But getting back to you, dear reader: Who was/is your Ruby when you were dealing with The Big C in your life?
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