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. :)
Yesterday the medical oncologist explained my chemotherapy options to me. Basically, there are three “generations” of chemotherapy, with increasing levels of intensity. First generation chemo is 12 weeks of two drugs administered in three week cycles. This is the most mild chemo treatment, and they don’t recommend this for me because my cancer is more aggressive. Second generation chemo starts […]
Continue reading »Well, that was an interesting appointment. The medical oncologist was not as personable as the radiologic oncologist, but certainly knowledgeable. He was a little pressed for time, I think, which made it a bit difficult to interact with him because he didn’t elaborate unless I asked elaborating questions and it’s hard to do that while you’re taking notes and trying […]
Continue reading »Now this is annoying, I definitely have a cold. Since Wednesday I’ve been feeling dehydrated and tired, and yesterday I started to cough, and now today we’re in full-fledged want-to-stay-in-bed-all-day sick mode. Thankfully it’s Memorial Day, and Chain has a holiday today. So I did sleep in, and, after a couple errands with Mark and picking up Rusty at the […]
Continue reading »Judging from my recent activities, you could almost look at me from the outside and not believe there’s anything wrong with me. Not so by 4AM thin morning, though. I went to a barbeque in Sacramento and then went with Mark and Michelle to an all-night milonga in Berkeley at a place called The Beat last night. For the first […]
Continue reading »Last night I went to a wine club party with Mark. He’s been in this wine club a year or so I think, and once a month they get together and everyone brings a bottle of wine and they have this tasting party like the one last night. It was often uncomfortable for me because Mark would leave me alone […]
Continue reading »I lost it on my MIT guy a little yesterday because he’s not responded for four weeks now about giving me something that should have taken him an hour to do when I asked for it and now I’m in this ridiculous massively past due time crunch for a report to all the clients, and I told him that I […]
Continue reading »Mother Nature must be having a bad hair day, or maybe she and Father Time had an argument, but whoa! My parents called from Laramie, Wyoming (they’re on their drive home from being here to take care of me) to tell me that they just saw a semi blown over at the side of the road and that they’ve been […]
Continue reading »WhooHoo! Going to Cell Space in San Francisco with Mark to tango tonight! Apparently no one except Mark and my parents can tell from looking at me that I’m ill or in any pain (everyone at the board meeting Tuesday night, and also my surgeon on Monday, kept commenting that I look great . . . gotta love what a […]
Continue reading »Aside from being ridiculously busy and still taking pain medication, today was kind of like a normal day. I started work at 6AM, and barely wrapped up by 3PM in order to spend a brief hour with my parents before leaving for the two-hour drive to Sac for my board meeting, then got out of that around 8PM, had another […]
Continue reading »7AM Now that was cool. I just got off the phone with Faisal Asrar, an OLD friend I haven’t seen or talked to since sometime in 1996 or so, about when I left Minnesota and moved to California. I didn’t even think his e-mail address would work, but I bcc’d him on the surgery e-mail last week anyway, and surprisingly […]
Continue reading »That was a strange dance experience. I guess in hindsight I should have just stayed home and kept resting, but sheesh, I’ve been cooped up for days and getting better every day, and even my parents thought it was ok for me to go (but they wouldn’t’ let me drive), but the best I can figure about what felt so […]
Continue reading »WOW! I can’t believe how many people wrote back to my e-mail letting them know about my surgery. 89 people wrote to me at just my primary e-mail account alone, so that’s not counting any of the SacTango community or Chainalytics people who have been wishing me well throughout all of this. Amazing! I don’t actually know how many people […]
Continue reading »I’m deformed. Why I thought they would be able to do this lumpectomy surgery and not leave me deformed I don’t know, but I honestly had not thought I would turn out like this. I had the follow up appointment with Dr. Almonte today, he’s the plastic surgeon who put in the implant after Thayer did the lumpectomy. This was […]
Continue reading »So technically this story is about day 19 of the cancer life, but the surgery day got me a bit off in my journaling. But this is one my parents will never forget, and I can’t very well leave it out of the journal, so I’m going to tell you about the day after surgery in the hospital. Overnight at […]
Continue reading »4:30PM Just got home. They couldn’t get the pain under control, so I was admitted to the hospital last night and they kept giving me morphine every hour throughout the night. No real sleep, but I did doze in and out of consciousness, which was very strange. I’d be in the middle of texting Mark and get too drowsy to […]
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