If you — or your child — were diagnosed with cancer, what would you do? How would you handle the treatments and the side effects? How would you keep your spirits up? These are just a few of the topics our patients and caregivers discussed on our Cancerwise blog this year.
Here's some of the best advice they shared in 2017:
On making treatment decisions
When 8-year-old Elise Robinson was diagnosed with osteosarcoma...
Many cancer patients have mantras — or inspiring sayings — that they do their best to live by. Some are reminders that good things can come...
For 78-year-old widower Do Lee, the hardest part of having stomach cancer wasn’t chemotherapy, radiation or even learning to eat again after...
As a child growing up in the 1950s, Dean Potter spent a great deal of time outdoors working on his family’s Rhode Island farm, playing at the beach and sailing on the bay. But he didn’t use sunscreen, because the product was still in its infancy back then.
“In those days, you put baby oil on to get the first good burn of the season, and then tanned the rest of the summer,” Dean says. “We didn’t know any better.”
So, when...
Ethan Tepera was only 13 years old when he was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in October 2011. He’d been pale and feeling nauseated...
Each year, approximately 100,000 women are diagnosed with some form of gynecologic cancer: cervical, ovarian, fallopian tube, uterine (also...
Music has always been a part of James McManus’ life. The middle son in a family of musicians, he was the lead singer of a rock ‘n roll band...
As a funeral home owner and operator in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the Rev. Lawrence Meadows knows what it means when doctors start talking...
For Ewing’s sarcoma and other types of sarcomas, treatment can sometimes include surgery to remove a tumor. That can also mean removing part...
When Marian Fields first felt a lump in her back in 2012, she asked her twin sister Mary Jane to look at it. Her twin said it looked just...
MD Anderson has been a part of Len Turpin’s family for generations. In the 1960s, his paternal great-grandmother was successfully treated...
Twin sisters Ana and Roxana Lopez were only 17 when their mother died of breast cancer. Over the next eight years, several of their aunts...
If you were told that there was a way to have surgery painlessly without general anesthesia, would you try it? Breast cancer survivor Kelly...
After being diagnosed with stage IB cervical cancer in October 2012, Allison Pozzi consulted four different specialists near her San Francisco...
An acute myeloid leukemia diagnosis (AML) in May 2016 came as no real surprise to Julia Dutton. She’d been fighting debilitating fatigue for...
Michelle Hines has never had ovarian cancer. But that didn’t stop the Maryland transplant from making a quilt that directly supports MD Anderson...
Gary Rudman has a motto: “Never quit. Never stop. Not today. Not ever.” And he’s lived by it throughout his multiple myeloma journey....
April 4 is just another day to most people. But to Erika Evans, it’s an important one. This year, it marked the fifth anniversary of the day...
Gary Rudman began experiencing severe lower back and leg pain in early 2013, just a few years after he retired from the U.S. Air Force. His...
Bloating. A feeling of fullness. Constipation. All of these can be symptoms of ovarian cancer. They can also be the result of a bad meal.<...
Kelly Mireles’ smile is the facial feature most people notice when first meeting her. That alone is a minor miracle.
Kelly had most...
When Sherry Zorzi first picked up a cigarette as a teenager, she never dreamed that one day she’d be telling people not to smoke.
“...
Singer Kimmie Rhodes had been married to legendary music producer Joe Gracey for 28 years when he died of metastatic esophageal cancer in...
When Sandra Hurley was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) back in 1997, an Ohio-based oncologist gave her two to four more...
Singer and songwriter Kimmie Rhodes holds a somewhat unique distinction: she’s supported two different people on their oral cancer journeys...