Mar 14
STABLE. As an adjective, Merriam-Webster defines it as “not changing or fluctuating” and gives it synonyms like firm, solid, steady, secure, fixed and strong. Those words have positive connotations and especially when applied to a disease not considered curable. Like the very large, very rare, neuroendocrine carcinoma of thymus origin lurking behind the heart of …
Oct 12
This is the story of two women God brought together more than two decades ago, forging a faith-filled friendship which has seen them through incredibly scary diagnoses. Chris’s ordeal began in July 1999 when at the age of 36 she suffered a grand mal seizure while sleeping. “My husband thought I fell out of bed,” she …
Sep 13
If you’re tired of hearing good news about people with little-to-no medical hope who are amazing doctors by how well they are doing, don’t even bother to read this. Okay, because you’re still here, I could not be more happy–and thankful to God–to tell you that my oncologist and dear friend, Dr. Marc Hirsh, had …
Jun 15
In my nearly two decades as a cancer patient advocate for Dr. Marc Hirsh, I met (and liked) 3,000+ newly diagnosed patients. This is a story about the only one I didn’t like and the miracle God did in both our hearts. That patient was told he always would be under cancer’s shadow. He was …
May 31
*I have not seen clear statistical evidence that fewer Christians die of cancer than nonbelievers, or that they are immune in greater degree from the diseases that afflict the human race. Some of the kindest, most selfless persons I know have had more than their share of bad health. The fact that they belonged …
Apr 20
Dr. Marc Hirsh has walked some deep valleys since he was diagnosed in 2020 with such a serious and rare cancer that he and every specialist he consulted thought his death was imminent. Within days he was forced to close his busy, solo practice of more than three decades and then undergo a painful thoracotomy …
Mar 08
My younger brother Jim and I invented a game as little kids and for some inexplicable reason we continue to play it now in our late 60s. We call it “Touched You Last.” The rules are simple: When it’s time to part, be the last person to touch the other. Finesse is important as we …
Nov 03
I’ve always been fascinated by the bald eagle, our country’s national symbol. But about a decade ago these once-endangered creatures came to symbolize something even more special for me. My women’s group was reading a book by husband-wife duo John and Stasi Eldredge in which they shared an amazing story. While John was on a …
Oct 13
I haven’t posted anything since March about my oncologist/former boss/dear friend, Dr. Marc Hirsh, who was diagnosed 16 months ago with an extremely rare, large cancerous tumor behind his heart. Last month at his 6-month checkup with his Hershey Medical oncologist, Marc and his wife Elizabeth braced themselves for bad news, still clinging to hope …
Nov 11
If you had asked my friend Carollynn Supplee what gave her hope throughout her cancer journey, she would have smiled and quickly answered: Feathers. She loved Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Thing with Feathers” which begins: Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And …
