When my oncologist suggested chemotherapy I panicked. The word chemotherapy played like a movie in my mind fast-forwarding then stopping on scenes of frailty, vomiting, total loss of appetite, and incapacitation. As I began treatments I still had visions of potential pain and suffering even though doctors and breast cancer survivors assured me that the chemo I was being prescribed wasn’t what I imagined. (more…)
Crowdsourcing came to me organically. After I was diagnosed I didn’t decide to solicit information, help and opinions from a large group of people. I just did it. Instinctively, I said and repeated, “I have cancer and I need your help” to throngs of family, friends, strangers, and acquaintances and waited for responses. (more…)
I don’t remember what the doctor said when she told me that I have cancer. I don’t remember the words. I do remember feeling a cold small panic that grew warmer, then larger. A panic that urged my mind and heart to race and then to stop, simultaneously then sequentially, all at once then not at all. (more…)