Brittney Tellekamp

Many organizations and companies use this alliteration. But I remember hunting around for a cancer shirt on Etsy and I stumbled across a seller with this phrase on a shirt...

Not long after I had recovered from my radical cystectomy, the medical team at Emory University asked that I have a full genetic panel completed. My medical team was dumbfounded...

As we celebrated the start of a new year, I began looking ahead and trying to make a plan for year 2 of active cancer treatment. The routine of immunotherapy...

Almost exactly a year before my diagnosis, my mom called me on Sunday afternoon and delivered the worst news imaginable. “They found cancer.” She had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer...

This may be an odd topic as the temperatures are dropping in the northern hemisphere, but for me, the cold weather season is when I enjoy visiting my local indoor...

Fighting cancer is usually seen as a physical fight. Your body is being attacked and through medicine, surgery, and sometimes brute strength, you fight back against the disease. Medical teams...

In late spring of 2019, I knew something was up. I was experiencing what I thought were heavy periods and spotting along with fatigue and just constant discomfort that ranged...

So many aspects of the initial part of my cancer journey are blurry. There was too much pain, too much confusion, and way too much medication to remember things fully...

Ostomies are strange things. I’ll admit when told I would be getting a urostomy, I had to immediately google what it was and I was dumbstruck. A piece of intestine...

Patient advocacy is a cause near and dear to my heart. This task is most often handed to the patient’s caregiver, meaning their spouse, close family, or parents, sometimes even...

Immunotherapy feels like the new kid on the block when it comes to cancer treatment. And in the world of medicine, it really is. Keytruda was approved for use in...

More often we tend to hear of people struggling to keep weight on while going through cancer treatment. Chemo and radiation can cause lack of appetite, nausea, and fatigue, all...

If you are familiar with my cancer story, you know that it has been ANYTHING but typical. From my age, stage of diagnosis, recovery story, even my treatment plan. Nothing...

You may have heard of “chemo brain,” but cancer-related brain fog is not limited to those who have experienced chemotherapy. So, what do we mean when we cancer patients say...

Well, it's official: I have had my life-saving stoma for an entire year now. Within 2 weeks of my diagnosis, my oncologists and surgeons knew I needed to have my...

As I sit in the waiting room of my cancer center, I look around and see the chairs spaced a perfect six feet apart. There are no visitors, and everyone’s...

Content warning: The following article mentions details surrounding the author’s experiences with pain, PTSD, and suicidal ideation. If you or someone you know is struggling, please know that there are...

I was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic bladder cancer. The cancer had invaded my bladder muscle wall, I had a grapefruit-sized tumor, and after pathology, we discovered 4 involved lymph...

Being diagnosed at age 28 with stage IV cancer brings so many challenges beyond just fighting this disease. Of course, there is the devastation of hearing “you have cancer”, facing...

I don’t sleep with a night drain system. I know that sounds crazy, but hear me out. My radical cystectomy was in August 2019, by November I was sleep deprived...