The sky's the limit.
The Cielem’el Survival and Growth Journal evolved out of two web logs I have maintained over time.
Begun in 2009 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 32, The Cielem’el Cancer Journal documented my trials, tribulations, and spiritual growth during breast cancer treatment, with information on the diagnoses, surgeries, chemotherapy treatments, radiation, and hormone therapy treatments, as well as all the personal and professional life stuff that still goes on throughout living a life with cancer. As a breast cancer survivor, I endeavor to inspire other young women like myself to fully engage and manage their cancer and treatments, and know that there are many women out there who are experiencing a similarly challenging emotional journey. Life doesn’t stop because you have cancer, it just gets more challenging.
About a year after finishing radiation, while still posting to The Cielem’el Cancer Journal, I started posting The Cielem’el Personal & Spiritual Growth Blog, which focused more clearly on areas of personal growth, self-development, and spiritual growth. My life journey and growth as a person neither began nor ended with cancer, and the Personal Growth blog was more of a continual journal of life experiences and learnings along my ongoing life journey beyond cancer. The journey honestly began when I was a newborn, shuffled and abused in multiple foster homes before being adopted by absolutely wonderful parents, and my life journey, consciously and continuously seeking personal growth, self development, and spiritual growth continues to evolve.
Over time it became clear that these two subjects cannot be divorced and maintained separately, because it is everything together that makes my web log what it is, meaning, an online journal of life experiences, survival, and growth from the perspective of someone who has survived multiple severe life trials and nurtured a conscious approach to personal and spiritual growth and self development. Hence, The Cielem’el Survival & Growth Journal. :)
Whoa, ok, here’s a new one . . . I can’t count how many drinks I had tonight. And now it’s 4AM! We had a really, really good time. We never left the casino, never did any gambling, we just hung out swapping stories and remembering old times and talking about a zillion different things. It was a wonderful foursome, […]
Continue reading »Well, ok, so I’m not out dancing, but at least I’m out. 🙂 The satellite guy never showed up yesterday, turns out it wasn’t actually “dispatched,” which seems weird because they called me to make sure I’d be home. Anyway, that made it possible for me to leave a little bit earlier (4:30) for the drive to Reno. Yes, that’s […]
Continue reading »I almost euthanized Snow on Sunday. She has this thing that’s pretty common to ryukins called swim bladder (disease?), and it makes her stomach too buoyant and she floats upside down. Not all the time, just mostly after she eats. She started doing it every time I fed the fish, so I moved her to her own tank so I […]
Continue reading »Wow. This is a really long journal. Granted, not everything from my journal is in the blog (the blog is maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of the actual cancer journal content because of the censoring I was doing – more on that some other time). One time when I was home last fall, I printed out the journal to date at […]
Continue reading »I was starting to get back in the habit of blogging frequently again, and then, well, I stopped feeling like I have anything to write about. All I’ve been doing is working, and I played WoW a little, but that’s pretty much it. I haven’t even seen an episode of Dancing with the Stars yet. I guess I’ll get caught […]
Continue reading »I was asked a question yesterday that, as I tried to reply to it today, got me thinking back into chemo and trying to remember things a little (which is a kind of thinking I usually avoid). But this woman has a friend who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and the friend is a very independent person who doesn’t […]
Continue reading »The doctor’s appointment today was with the surgeon who did the lumpectomy. I have to see him every three months for the first two years of treatment so that any recurrence is discovered very early. It was the same conversation I seem to have with every doctor these days, and he nodded along just like every other doctor does, since […]
Continue reading »My day started last night when I found out my guy in India, who was supposed to start on this project today (that’s due to clients in two and a half weeks) is actually taking this entire week off to visit his family. I would never begrudge someone time with their family, even if decided last minute, but it still […]
Continue reading »I really haven’t felt like blogging since I went back to work. I spend soooo much time in front of the computer, I don’t even keep up with my personal e-mail, you know? But last week, I got an instant message through the plugoo on my blog site. It’s this woman I’ve never met, but she read my blog, my […]
Continue reading »It should have been a 20-minute phone call. This isn’t complicated stuff, and having someone else working on it is supposed to reduce my workload and stress. Well, when I finally got off the phone from what became a 75-minute call, I was completely wiped out and all I could do was put my head down on my desk and […]
Continue reading »It’s too bad my home is two hours away from Sacramento and all my oncology doctors and treatment, and that I got so carsick during treatment that I couldn’t come home. I think I would have been a lot stronger emotionally and less stressed during treatment if I could have been home in the forest instead of trapped in Sacramento, […]
Continue reading »Hmmm, catch up the blog, catch up the blog . . . I don’t know where to start. The Dec. 11 blog entry was just such a fitting ending, I didn’t want to write any more. Then I went home for Christmas and didn’t do a whole lot to be posting about. I played the flute at Mom’s church for […]
Continue reading »I had the most wonderful lunch with Kim today. She’s my yoga instructor. I haven’t gotten to spend a lot of time with her, but over the weeks there have been a lot of really vulnerable moments when she asked how I was doing and we talked about where I was in treatment or whatever. And so she felt like […]
Continue reading »What an insane day. I spent the entire day (well, the entire day after noon, since I can’t seem to get out of bed until the last possible minute before having to go to radiation, and then I nap when I get back because I’m so tired, but anyway, it was radiation girl’s version of the entire day) packing up […]
Continue reading »It’s my birthday. I had forgotten, until I got part-way to town and my cell phone started dinging and donging with all the text messages people had been sending me all morning to wish me a happy birthday. And every so often all afternoon it would go off again with another person’s happy birthday note. Technology can be so fun! […]
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