PHOENIX, RISING

Lisa Bonchek Adams was like a phoenix, rising.

(Copyright Lisa Bonchek Adams)

She was a beacon of honesty. The transparency in her blogging was unsurpassed. 

She wrote in great detail about her life with metastatic breast cancer — the good, the bad, the ugly. She wanted — needed — to tell it like it really is. Like it really was. Like she really felt.

She didn't sugar-coat s#@%. 

She wrote bluntly, bravely, beautifully...

CYBER SUPPORT

My first blog logo, circa April 2011

It's been nearly three years since my first blog post hit cyberspace. It was April 2011, and I was in the thick of my frustration, anger and sadness following a breast cancer diagnosis. If I didn't write down what I was feeling, I thought my head would explode. Blogging became a natural way for me to process my cancer "situation."

I wasn't always aware of what I was dealing with; enlightenment often came after I hit the "publish" button. Writing is weird that way...

2013 REVIEW

2013? That was so yesterday. 

It was a year in which I wrote 30 fewer blog posts than I did in 2012. The year I forgot my diagnosis anniversary. The year I started focusing on other stuff. Stuff I haven't felt a need to write about. And that, my peeps, is progress. (For me.) 

I did review the 50 posts I managed to pen in 2013, and found a few snippets to highlight here...

JEN "JELEBELLE" VENNES

(Copyright ©2013 Jennifer Ledda Vennes/Keep the Calm)

The breast cancer blogging community has lost another wonderful woman, wife, mother, blogger to the scourge that is breast cancer — Jen "jelebelle" Vennes. She was 39.

Jen penned the supremely well-written, super honest, often raw and always inspiring blog, KeepTheCalm. I'd been following her story since Spring 2012, when she first wrote about the chemo drug Navelbine (something her nurses jokingly referred to as "navy bean"), which was part of the trifecta of chemo drugs she was desperate to have work...

3 REASONS FRIENDSHIPS FADE POST-CANCER

(Copyright © 2013 The Big C and Me)

I wrote a blog post back in January 2013 about how our relationships change at various points during our cancer treatment, how the demands on our time changes, and how this can leave us feeling invisible. It struck a chord with many, so I thought it might be important to post again. Maybe you (or someone you know) can relate...

SO LONG TO CINDY, DAY 18

DAY 18 of #HAWMC and I'm supposed to write about a time that I lashed out at someone close to me out of frustration/fear/anger caused by cancer.

Instead, I prefer to write tonight about the anger I feel that another lovely lady has passed away from cancer. Her name was Cindy. She had a very rare cancer: sarcoma of the upper arm.

I didn't know Cindy in person, but I followed her blog. In February 2013 she was given 6-12 months to live. Her friend Becky posted that Cindy died on April 4, 2013. 

Cindy lived in New Mexico and in addition to writing about cancer, she loved to write about hiking and walking in nature. In fact, she devoted an entire section of her blog to what she called The Mind-Body Walk. I loved that part.

In honor of Cindy, I'd like to leave you with a bit of her writing....

IN MEMORIUM

Today is the one-year anniversary of the death of Rachel Cheetham Moro. There will be many tributes to Rachel in the blogosphere today...

A FALLEN STAR

I am very saddened to hear that Debbi Chapman Dempsey passed away this past weekend. 

Debbi and I connected via our breast cancer blogs. When I started mine in April 2011, I was writing into the ethers — until June 26, 2011. That's the day I received my very first comment on a blog post. And that comment was written by Debbi. 

Since that day, I followed her blog (aptly named A Too Sassy Gal)...