- By Nanette Bentley
- Posted August 20, 2019
Unexpected Health Crisis Helps Family Learn Vital Health Information
On the evening of November 12, 2018, my husband and I received a call from our then 18-year-old daughter Oli’s school, informing us that she had been found outside her room with no pulse, in full cardiac arrest after a fire alarm went off in the dorm. The security officer started chest compressions and brought her back with one shock from the…
- By Dina Scaglione
- Posted June 15, 2018
A Lifelong Father's Day Gift
As far back as I can remember my dad was always into health and fitness. So when I joined the track team in junior high, my dad decided he would start running with me to help me improve my race times. Little did I know, or could I appreciate, this was actually an excuse to spend more time with me. Donned in white Dolphin shorts he would shuffle…
- By AJ Stuenkel
- Posted June 12, 2018
Real Men Go to the Doctor
Throughout the month of June many 5ks will be run, fundraisers and educational fairs will take place, and blue will be worn, all in the name of Men’s Health. In the U.S., June is designated as Men’s Health Month while June 11-18 is recognized internationally as Men’s Health Week, with goal of both to “heighten the awareness of preventable…
- By Jessica Profato, MS, CGC
- Posted June 8, 2018
I Survived Cancer, so Why do I Need Genetic Testing for it?
As a clinical genetic counselor, I saw many cancer survivors for genetic counseling. In some cases, it had been 30-40 years since they were diagnosed. Some of them were in their 60s-70s when I saw them, but they were young at the time of their cancer diagnosis. Years later, they were referred to me to talk about the possibility that their history…
- By Erin Danielle
- Posted June 4, 2018
Strength and Survivorship: Honoring National Cancer Survivor's Day
From the moment I was diagnosed with breast cancer I knew there was something bigger out there for me. I've always believed that. I trusted that my cancer journey would bring me just one step towards whatever that 'bigger' is in my life. I’m a 37 year-old single mom to an incredible, hockey-playing, boxing 10 year-old boy, and about three years…
- By Giana Stanigar
- Posted May 18, 2018
Why 37 is Just a Number: Thriving with Cystic Fibrosis
Editor’s Note: We continue our recognition of Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month by connecting two people with cystic fibrosis – one who is under the usual life expectancy age and another who has surpassed it by 26 years – to provide a reflection into their pasts and a look into their futures. Ambry arranged for a video conference…
- By Marla Rosenblum
- Posted March 21, 2018
A Mother's Letter to Her Daughter After Waiting 16 Years for a Diagnosis
Unedited. Untouched. Raw Emotion. Raw Love. Dear Aubree Bella, My Rare Girl: Ahhh sweet 16. And what a journey. You entered this world so very sick. Beating the odds and surviving. Looking into your eyes as I held you for the first time in the NICU, there was something about your eyes. My “mommy heart” knew they held the answers.…
- By Britt Ochoa
- Posted March 14, 2018
My 100th Round of Chemo and How it Touched my Soul
The news of a cancer diagnosis can demolish the reality in which you currently reside. My reality was spent at twenty-seven-years-old when I was diagnosed with Stage IV Colon Cancer. It was an upheaval to the life that I had so customarily taken advantage of. It was taking a health crisis to shake up the frozen patterns of my former ways. Of…
- By Eleanor Meghan Cary Brown
- Posted March 8, 2018
No Colon, No Cancer: I Fought for the Life I Deserved.
I never thought I’d hear the “C” word. Newly married and about to start my graduate degree, everything seemed bright. That is until a routine colonoscopy discovered severe high-grade dysplasia. My doctor explained that he was confident it would eventually manifest into cancer and urged something be done. With the click of the phone, I collapsed…
- By Amanda Sheldon
- Posted February 28, 2018
Finding the Missing Link of Heart Disease in Families: Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH)
Many people have friends and family members who tell stories of losing their father when he was 40, or having a mother who had a heart attack in her 30s. These same people may even know that they have high cholesterol, and sometimes are told it is inherited. What they don’t know is that this condition could be familial hypercholesterolemia (FH)…