Articles

I was shocked when I was first diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2014, as are many others. Online sites were my salvation and certainly showed me that though this form...

Hearing the news that someone you love has cancer is the beginning of an emotional rollercoaster. For anyone in the same position as I was when I first heard the...

We can all agree that our pets are very intuitive. They just seem to "know" when something is wrong and, in their own way, try to help. Early on in...

Mom restarted her chemotherapy instillations 2 weeks after the first attempt. The 2-plus hour drive from Manteca to Palo Alto seemed like an eternity. We knew anything could hold us...

I have to say. I often feel so privileged for the rewarding opportunities having been through a bladder cancer journey and becoming an ostomate has brought me. Of course, like...

Let me start there. You are so beautiful and have an inner strength that will change lives, even if you don't know it yet. You have suffered in silence, with...

At the end of January 2021, Mom had a sleep study in the same town we had driven into for her BCG treatments. I noticed appointments were ramping up. It...

Almost 5 years after I left the ward where I was post-surgery, I walked back in here tonight. Tonight, as the workday was drawing to a close for many Glaswegians...

Nurse Anita, aka Anita Nurse, aka the Stoma Whisperer or the Stoma Doula. I'm all of those things, but mostly I consider myself a healer. I just happen to have...

Let's get in the time machine and go back to September 2019. I was freshly healed from my radical cystectomy, starting to get acquainted with having a urostomy and grappling...

The 1st of November 2017. This is a date I will never forget. A date that will always have great significance in my life. A day I will continue to...

There I stood at my bathroom counter, a third failed bag in the trash, and staring daggers at my stoma. Nothing I did could get my ostomy bag to stick...

Today I am looking at the impact of living with a retracted stoma. If your bladder cancer treatment plan includes surgery to remove your bladder, known as a radical cystectomy...

A cancer diagnosis in the family, I've come to learn, has long-term effects for more than just the patient. In the beginning, when I first received the news that my...

I have declared 2023 as the year I will reclaim my normal. In 2019 I was diagnosed with what should have been terminal bladder cancer. 2020 brought about COVID. 2021...

To anyone who knows me well, I have always loved birthdays. I am writing this a few days before my 46th birthday. In fact, I always liked to think I...

2021 rang in as most New Year's do. Instead of silly resolutions, we would forget days or weeks later, Mom and I were focused on her bladder cancer battle.  ...

I have often wondered if a urostomy is something that most healthcare professionals - doctors, nurses, physician's assistants, techs - know and understand.  From the information I have gleaned from...

Living with bladder cancer is never easy. But, thankfully, there can be wins and milestones worth celebrating along the way. As last year came to a close, we wanted to...

Do you have late-night thoughts? I think we all do at some point. There is always a night you can't sleep for one reason or another. It could be a...