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. :)
I drove home to Volcanoville today. I was really wiped out after the milonga, so was Mark, and we slept in really late so I didn’t start home until after lunch, but when I got home it was gorgeous out. The weather in Sac has been cold and wet, but at home it was fifteen degrees warmer and sunny California […]
Continue reading »OMG, I totally forgot to mention the drawbacks of the car, and they’re funny! My gripe is that it smells like Dirty Man. You know, that smell that comes from a guy throwing his dirty clothes in a pile on the bedroom floor until the whole room reeks of old sweat and guys shorts. Nauseating! Mark is going to have […]
Continue reading »Mark bought a new car today! Well, not brand new, but a good replacement to his stolen and totaled Acura. We went to Davis (about 20 miles away) to see this 2002 Subaru Legacy, which is like the Outback (another, more common, Subaru wagon) but a little different styling. The price was great, it had pretty low miles for its […]
Continue reading »Last night we went to Cellspace and looked at a couple bandoneons. Mark got to play them, and the guy who’s going to teach him was also there and played them for us (it was amazing to sit two feet from an astounding professional bandoneon player with the instrument in his hands) and he told us his opinion regarding which […]
Continue reading »Uff da, the neuropathy has been worse with the cold weather (it’s been in the low 50s), especially in my feet. I hope it won’t get much worse when I go to South Dakota where it’s truly cold. Last week sometime (I think) I uploaded a few family photos to my Facebook. But since my external hard drive had an […]
Continue reading »They changed my radiation today. For the first 28 treatments, they were doing a proton radiation, and today they changed to an electron one that they’re going to do for the next two weeks . . . they call it a radiation “boost.” There was some confusion as to the technical details for my radiation boost, so one of the […]
Continue reading »I keep thinking it’s getting to be time to stop the blog. It seems like all I do is complain and bemoan my situation and I don’t think I really have much of interest to tell everyone on a daily basis anymore, not like when I was in the early stages after the cancer diagnosis or during chemo when every […]
Continue reading »The struggle to overcome is exhausting.
Continue reading »I started to take the Jeep to the reservoir and then decided that wasn’t such a good idea. It’s only a few miles, but with Rubi garaged all this time as a non-operating uninsured-to-save-money vehicle, I decided it was better to avoid any potential difficulties, and drove down to the little lake that borders my property instead. I walked down […]
Continue reading »It was a quiet Thanksgiving . . . we slept in REALLY late, and I didn’t do a thing except rest and mess around on the computer a little until it was time to get ready to go to Thanksgiving dinner in the evening. We went to a little tango get-together that was really enjoyable. I almost didn’t make it, […]
Continue reading »So we’re all settled last night and had already started playing the game, when Mark gets a phone call and a couple guys want to go to Cellspace, so Mark changes his mind again and decides he wants to go after all, so an hour later we’re on the road in the fog to go to San Francisco. We had […]
Continue reading »Hmm, so what’s going on today. Well, there’s the usual side effects and stuff everyone knows all about, so nothing interesting there. I saw the radiation oncologist yesterday and she said I’m taking really good care of my skin (in terms of the radiation burn). The skin’s burned, has sores, and is peeling, but apparently it could be a whole […]
Continue reading »Mark got some great news yesterday afternoon . . . the insurance company finally told him that it would cost more than $10,000 to repair the damage done to his car when it was stolen, so it’s definitely totaled, but the good news is that they’re giving him nearly double what he paid for the car as the settlement. Mark […]
Continue reading »Ugh, this is just so Miserable! I stopped and bought cat litter at the pet store on the way back from radiation, and by the time I got here I was so exhausted I couldn’t even stand up and I just managed to get my shoes off before I collapsed in a ball on the lovesac in my office, right […]
Continue reading »It’s late, about midnight, and we just got back from San Francisco. We went down this evening so Mark could meet this bandoneon player and talk to him about what to look for in purchasing the instrument. We also did just a smidge of dancing. Mark didn’t really learn anything new from the guy, but now he has another contact […]
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