Mar 31
There’s nothing funny about cancer. But after my diagnosis in 1990, I figured laughter could be good medicine for our family. Upon learning that my chemo pill actually was a worming medicine designed to kill intestinal parasites in sheep and dogs, I would pop one in my mouth and start barking and chasing my …
Mar 17
“Oh, my grandmother had that kind of cancer—she didn’t last long.” “My neighbor has what you have—he’s in so much pain.” “I thought you’d be over this grieving by now.” Heard any such insensitive (dare I say “stupid”) remarks? I think I’ve heard them all and then some. I remember bumping into a church …
Feb 03
In grade-school science, you probably learned that a shadow is caused by the absence of light when an opaque (not see-through) object has absorbed the light. And that shadows fall opposite their light source. That’s why your shadow is in front of you if the sun is behind you and vice versa. The way you’re …
Jan 20
It’s been more than four months since I’ve interviewed Dr. Marc Hirsh about his journey with a rare cancer, so I called him a few days ago. “Just got back from a half-hour run with (older daughter)Jessi’s two dogs,” Marc said on the phone as he fixed himself a glass of juice. “You’re jogging?” I …
Dec 02
I think it was quite an understatement when Elizabeth Edwards, wife of then-U.S. Senator and former Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards asserted that the wind had not blown her way. Elizabeth’s firstborn was killed in a car accident at the age of 17. Later while she was fighting recurrent breast cancer, her husband had …
Oct 14
Not long after Donna Wishowski was diagnosed with cancer, she made a decision which would radically shape the next 17 years of her life: “Cancer will not steal one day from me!” It was a choice that no matter how many days she had left–or didn’t have left–she would not allow a disease to …
Sep 16
I hope you have someone who is praying with you during your cancer journey or whatever trial you’re facing—not just for you, but right with you so you can hear your needs lifted to Heaven. Even though I have been privileged to pray with cancer patients and their caregivers for the past 30+ years, I never …
Sep 02
We already knew that cancer is no respecter of people: young/old, rich/poor, athlete/couch potato, doesn’t matter. It can strike whenever and wherever. And a few days ago we learned that even a superhero can get cancer…and die. Award-winning film actor Chadwick Boseman starred in 42 as Jackie Robinson, the first Black Major League Baseball player, and …
Aug 19
It’s one thing to be given a cancer diagnosis. It’s another matter to be told there is no known cure for that cancer. And it’s a whole other ballgame to learn there’s no recognized effective treatment either. My oncologist, Dr. Marc Hirsh, has been smacked with this reality in the three months since he …
Aug 05
I remember thinking how ironic it was when I was diagnosed with cancer just six weeks after interviewing the local oncologist, Dr. Marc Hirsh, for my newspaper story about the hospital’s new cancer support group. And now in an even greater irony, that cancer specialist–my oncologist–has been diagnosed with the very disease that he spent …
