Tummy Sticks

March 21, 2016.Reading time 7 minutes.

I’ve been going along, living each day, thanks to my amazing brother, family and friends. Back in the saddle of life kinda thing. I was literally just thinking that I was getting into a rut, even taking my miracle life for granted. – Enter Saturday morning – My face was puffier, more inflamed and fuglier […]

3rd Transplanniversary, Pharmacandidates, Jared’s Pacific Plunge and a Misfit Tree

December 23, 2015.Reading time 8 minutes.

I can’t believe I’m writing this, but it’s been THREE years since my transplant! Everything I’ve been able to do these past three years is Because Leason! I love my Bronor! (Bro + Donor) Dr. F has been reducing my meds over the past year, and as I took less and less immune suppressants, he […]

Guest Blogger – My Lifesaving Donor Son, Rex

November 5, 2015.Reading time 9 minutes.

You must be sooooo sick of me blah blah blah-ing all the time, so I thought you would greatly appreciate (I know, right? She never shuts up) hearing from someone else who has had experience with the transplant world. It’s about time for some new blood! Rex writes from the perspective of a stem cell donor. […]

O N E T H O U S A N D D A Y S

September 17, 2015.Reading time 23 minutes.

My amazing friend and super supporter, Jared Reichbaum of Walking Across Amarrowca and epic beard-growing fame, is already in Colorado, quickly making his way to California! Simply stupendous in every way! His goal is to arrive in time to complete the last official leg of his incredible 7-month journey at the Be The Match Walk+Run in […]

Shark Week Shoutout

July 11, 2015.Reading time 8 minutes.

Fairly obvi you come out of a bone marrow transplant a far cry from what you went in as, right? I mean, duh, you have a whole new blood type and an additional DNA, which is your very own unique definition as a living being. Add to that chemotherapy-induced menopause, and you’ve got the recipe for an unrecognizable selfdom. […]

YOLT

January 11, 2015.Reading time 14 minutes.

Wow! I feel like a big loser poopy head for not writing my 60th post sooner. I strongly dislike excuses, so I won’t give you one. I’ll give you 3. It’s exceedingly difficult to write when you’re: 1. 90 feet underwater 2: flying towards earth at 120 mph and 3: clinging to an ice wall […]

A Day in the Life (on the bone marrow transplant floor)

October 14, 2014.Reading time 13 minutes.

While getting this blog organized to be published, I realized I had written virtually nothing about my hospital adventures. I spent 90 days and nights at City of Hope’s Helford Hospital, but I never really felt up to writing while I was there, and even if I did – and I know this sounds like a […]

From Hair to There

August 19, 2014.Reading time 5 minutes.

Queue Rod Serling: You are about to enter another dimension. A dimension not only of time and space, but of hair. A journey into a wondrous land of strands. You’ve just crossed over into… the Baldilocks Zone. My apologies to those of you born after about 1970, for you are now wondering where the f you can […]

Transitioning Back to “Normal”

July 10, 2014.Reading time 8 minutes.

I’m feeling more and more like my prick (pre + sick) self lately, and my last visit to City of Hope’s Main Lab waiting room confirmed it. Putting my new vision to use, I surveyed my fellow patients, all there for AFBT – Another F-ing Blood Test, and I realized I was the ONLY one without […]

On Second Thought

May 29, 2014.Reading time 7 minutes.

SECOND CHANCE I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how lucky and blessed I am to have a second chance at life. A do-over. If I had been born a few decades earlier (before bone marrow transplants), I wouldn’t have seen my 50th birthday. If my brother, Leason, had not been a match, I may […]