'Tis the season to be jolly ...
December 2, 2020
" ... but I've just been diagnosed with breast cancer."
Everyone is decorating their homes, shopping for gifts, buying up large for Christmas dinners and celebrations, and going to end-of-year parties … there's an air of fun, frivolity, and summer plans.
You have been given a diagnosis of breast cancer.The impact of a diag...
Cleaning up the emotional wreckage
November 26, 2019
From guest blogger Jane BissellThat can take a while after cancer.Any kind of bad news, I mean really difficult news, leaves wreckage in its wake. How can anyone emerge unscathed after a diagnosis of cancer? There is the initial shock, and a kind of numbness or denial that t...
The ongoing story that is life with, and after, cancer
October 9, 2019
From guest blogger Jane Bissell
This coming Sunday I'm having lunch downtown with a good friend to celebrate the diagnosis of my first breast cancer diagnosis. My friend is one of the Cancer Babes I wrote about in my book Welcome to the Amazon Club . We met at a cancer suppo...
Structure and distraction
September 5, 2019
From guest blogger Jane Bissell
In the days immediately following a diagnosis of breast cancer, we know some, but not all, the information about our cancer.
And there’s nothing worse than ‘not knowing’.
If the information we have is incomplete, sketchy, or not ava...
Cancer is for other people, not me
August 28, 2019
From guest blogger Jane Bissell
I don’t think anything prepares you for a diagnosis of cancer.
Another Breast Cancer Awareness Month - traditionally October but now creeping into September with pink things everywhere - will soon arrive, and as a friend of mine ...
How are you feeling today?
July 6, 2019
From guest blogger Jane Bissell
It's a simple question.Often we'll ask something similar when we see our friends, or talk to them on the phone: "How are you?" And then we might enhance that by adding, "Hope you've been well during this awful winter we've been having. S...
Is there a good side to having cancer?
June 13, 2019
From guest blogger Jane Bissell
I always remember early on after my diagnosis I was watching Olivia Newton-John being interviewed on TV and she said that having cancer was 'the best thing that ever happened' to her.Hmm.I recall at the time being slightly horrified because I ...
Information overload on diagnosis day
June 5, 2019
From guest blogger Jane Bissell
Women newly diagnosed with breast cancer will often say that it's an 'information overload.'
To hear that you have breast cancer, and then to be given folders, pamphlets, and many sheets of paper is sometimes more than we can handle with...
Simple things like boiled eggs and soldiers
May 27, 2019
From guest blogger Jane Bissell When I was having chemotherapy for breast cancer, the simplest things took on greater meanings, and the routine often became a challenge.
Eating could be problematic. The first week or so after a chemo treatment, it was hard to know ...
What is the 'right' thing to do after cancer?
April 5, 2018
By Jane Bissell
During a recovery from breast cancer, we're often fearful that we're doing the wrong thing when it comes to helping ourselves - but what is the 'right thing'?
This can be particularly stressful when treatment is finished, because when we're under the continual care of our me...