A Daily Survival Kit for Serious Illness

Posted September 8th, 2021

Adapted from Thomas L. McDermitt, “A long-time cancer patient and skeptic.” NOTE AS YOU READ THIS POST: You don’t have to agree with all of this all of the time. But if it generally speaks to you, try to read all or parts of it every day, or have it read to you. Part of the […]

Cancer Rehabilitation Starts at Diagnosis: Part II

Posted July 13th, 2021

Cancer Rehabilitation: An Invaluable Service but a PR Challenge In part 1 of this blog, I told you about the ways that cancer rehabilitation (rehab) providers can help people with cancer, from the time of diagnosis through well into survivorship. After reading that you may have thought why don’t all people get this? I often […]

Cancer Rehabilitation Starts at Diagnosis

Posted July 6th, 2021

Survivorship care typically begins at the end of active treatment. The goal is to provide support and resources for moving forward after treatment. In reality, survivorship care is most helpful when it looks at your whole cancer experience, from diagnosis forward. You are a survivor from day 1. A vital starting point is a baseline […]

Survivor Story: Erin

Posted June 4th, 2021

June is National Cancer Survivors Month! To honor survivors, we will be sharing stories from folks with cancer and their caregivers. Today we hear from Erin. 37-Year-Old Cancer Survivor and Mom of Four Shares Her Survival Story to Help Others An advanced Stage III colon cancer diagnosis was the last thing I expected to receive […]

Why You Should Tell the Story of the Mountain You Climbed

Posted August 14th, 2019

My husband, Gary, and I climbed several mountains during his cancer years. He was on a treatment to slow down prostate cancer cell growth. One of the side effects was osteoporosis. So in our middle years, we laced up hiking boots and conquered the nearby Oregon Cascades. And then we took on more mountain ranges. […]

Survivorship Care Plans – What does the future hold?

Posted June 24th, 2019

If you are following the proposed Commission on Cancer (CoC) changes to the survivorship standard, you know they have drafted changes that would make providing survivorship care plans (SCP) unnecessary for accreditation, though they still recommend their use. While implementing SCP use in clinics has proven challenging for some centers, others have had great successes. We […]

Karen Arnold-Korzeniowski, BSN, RN

The Survival List

Posted June 13th, 2019

Each patient’s survival story is different. A diagnosis of cancer can quickly consume your life. Between appointments with your providers, imaging tests, treatments, calling your insurance company, trying to figure out employment and financial issues, cancer can easily take up most of your days, weeks and months. I walked this journey with my aunt all […]

When Is Progress a Bad Thing?

Posted June 4th, 2019

Disease Progression.  Two little words, never used before, have insidiously snuck into my doctor’s vernacular. My chemotherapy ended twenty months ago and the deep response was something to celebrate. We had gotten terrific results and I felt liberated, each day a new lease on life. But now I seem to recall a bit of caution […]

Celebrating National Cancer Survivors Day

Posted June 2nd, 2019

Every year, on the first Sunday in June, we recognize National Cancer Survivors Day (NCSD). It’s a day to celebrate the strength and resilience of survivors and caregivers and to provide inspiration to those facing a new diagnosis. It is a reminder that life after cancer can be fulfilling, rewarding and inspiring. A few years ago […]

Karen Arnold-Korzeniowski, BSN, RN

Surviving – It Is Personal

Posted June 5th, 2018

There are many different ways of thinking about cancer survivorship. These beliefs and your personal definition is just that, personal. It is unique to each individual and can change over time. When I first started taking care of patients I believed that you survived cancer when your cancer was gone. As I matured in my […]