- By Eve Mart
- Posted February 16, 2017
The Ebbs and Flows of Sexuality After Having Cancer
I’ve put off discussing this topic because I didn’t know how or where to start. But two days after Valentine’s Day or otherwise, it’s relevant. I want to come from a place of positivity, but truthfully, I can’t seem to get there right now. It was more than 8 years ago that I went through treatment for early stage breast cancer, which…
- By Cynthia Rigali Lund
- Posted February 2, 2017
Additional Healing Methods to Fight Cancer: Your Local Community Center
Cancer is an equal opportunity disease: It affects people regardless of age, gender, socioeconomic background or race. One day, you may be walking along, seemingly healthy as a horse and the next day—you’re diagnosed with cancer. Your outlook may be bleak; it might be optimistic. Either way, as the person diagnosed, it’s a feeling of being…
- By Theresa Smith
- Posted January 19, 2017
So My DNA Is Messed Up...What Do I Do Next?
Editor’s Note: At a time when we might consider the year ahead, we thought it helpful to re-post this entry from Theresa Smith, patient advocate, who offered her "next steps" after learning at age 45 that she carried a BRCA2 mutation. Sharing the news about my genetic test results with my immediate family was tough. I'll offer some…
- By Eve Mart
- Posted July 19, 2016
Relearning to Balance
After cancer treatment, I was so relieved to be finished with the demands of treatment and ready to put the experience behind me. Ironically, I found myself feeling uncertain with what my future held. I was so fixated on a magic number… five years. In my mind, if I could just get five years out from treatment, I would be magically cured and the…
- By Deepti Babu, MS, CGC
- Posted March 17, 2016
The Buddy System: It Works for Hereditary Cancer, Too ( original)
We’ve covered a lot of territory with this blog, so thank you for coming on the ride with us. Theresa Smith recently talked about her experience of sharing her genetic test results with her family, and we offered a genetic counselor’s perspective on the same idea. This time, we’re focusing more on you – we’re exploring the idea of building…
- By Jessica Profato, MS, CGC
- Posted February 4, 2016
Coping with Cancer: 5 Lessons from my Patients
As a clinical genetic counselor, a big part of my job was educating my patients about the basics of genetics and hereditarycancer. Another equally, if not more, important part of my job was to talk to them about how a diagnosis of cancer, a positive genetic test result, or a combination of the two was impacting their life and those of their family…