aLive @ Stage 4!

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Showing posts from February, 2025

Possible Progression

February 18, 2025

Please forgive me for not updating the blog for about 2 1/2 years. The short version is that I squeezed four years of college into two years, got my Bachelor's Degree, and went from Instructional Assistant (teacher's aide) to Special Education Teacher. Huge move, I've been super busy teaching US History to high schoolers, and managing a case load (so far of about 8 students on average per year). I write/update their IEP's, monitor their progress, and help them as needed. It's amazing. During the time I have been absent from my blog, I have been stable in the medical sense. I have received treatment every three weeks, and had scans every three months. All as been well until now. Possible Progression I had an appointment with my oncologist yesterday. Actually I am between oncologists at the moment; I've been seeing a Nurse Practitioner, who is amazing. During our appointment yesterday, an oncologist joined us. We are concer...

Introduction

As I start this blog in the last week of 2015, I am 50 years old. I am married and have two sons, ages 18 and 14. I was diagnosed on March 5, 2015, with breast cancer. Since then, I have kept a caringbridge page (link below). I initially created the caringbridge page to have a place to give medical updates to those who wanted them. I've decided to start a blog as an extension of that caringbridge page, because there is so much more I want to say! I will take some of those same entries and build on them here (so if you've been following me on caringbridge, some of these entries may seem familiar). I will post random thoughts (they seem to always happen in the middle of the night!). I will post funny things, and I will post serious things. Hopefully, I will post interesting things. :)

I hope that with this blog, my writing about my experiences will do a few things:

-- For you who are have cancer; it may help to know that you are not alone in what you're going through. It's hard. No two people's experiences are exactly the same. I hope that you will find something here that will be comforting, and/or answer a question or two you may have. At the very least, know that you are not alone.

-- For people with loved ones who have cancer; it may help you to understand, at least a little bit, of what your loved one is feeling, emotionally and physically.

Feedback is welcome. If there is a topic you would like addressed, please let me know. If you think I'm wrong about something, please let me know. Constructive criticism is welcome; nasty comments are not. This is my first ever attempt at writing a blog; there is so much I don't know about it -- any tips are welcome.

Disclaimer: All views and opinions in this blog are mine. I do not purport to give medical advice. This blog is simply a journal of my experiences with my cancer, my thoughts and opinions, nothing else.