What does telling a cancer patient, just stay positive, really mean? Perhaps such a comment is more about the person saying it than the one hearing it. Stick with me here. The topic of maintaining a positive attitude during cancer treatment (and beyond) is one that comes up time and time again in Cancer Land. …
Cancer launguage
March can still stir up lots of emotions for me. It’s the month my mother died from metastatic breast cancer. I shared about my experience being a caregiver to my mother during her illness and death from metastatic disease in my memoir. I also shared about the fact I was not there during her final …
Let’s stop telling cancer patients how to feel and what to do! I don’t know about you, but sometimes it seems to me like there are way too many people telling cancer patients how to feel, how to act, how to do cancer and yes, how to do survivorship, too. Do you remember when you …
Have you ever wondered what great lesson(s) you’re supposed to have learned from cancer? I have. After all, this is another cancer expectation that’s out there and continuously perpetuated. We’re supposed to learn from, and therefore, potentially be grateful for the life “detour” that is cancer, are we not? (Umm. No!) We are supposed to …
Four things not to say to someone who’s grieving. Articles float around from time to time about things to say or not say to someone who’s been diagnosed with cancer, so I wasn’t going to bother and write one. Instead, I decided I’d write one about what not to say to someone who is grieving …