A Christian Realist Gets Stage IV/Metastatic Breast Cancer
Early in the morning on Wednesday, January 12th my dear Samantha, the creator of this beautiful blog, passed away quickly and peacefully. Life has changed for all of us. Given the particularities of her diagnosis and its ultimate prognosis, we were expecting this day to come eventually, but we were not expecting the manner that... Continue Reading →
Cancer has a way of speaking. It has many ways of accomplishing its mission of messing with your mind and messing with your body. It likes to take center stage and control how its viewed and it does that through how it gets you to talk about it and how it gets other's to talk... Continue Reading →
The words you are about to experience are true. For they come from the very heart of God. He loves YOU. And He is the Father you have been looking for all your life. This is His love letter to you. My Child, You may not know me, but I know everything about you. Psalm... Continue Reading →
How do you immortalize the love of two individuals meant for each other. Two sweethearts clinging to each other when cancer wants to consume and destroy one of them and collaterally destroy the other. Taken on our wedding day My beloved and I met in the birth era of online dating. He signed up for... Continue Reading →
While I have dedicated a section of my blog to my faith https://lifeandirises.home.blog/cancer-and-the-christian-comfort-in-the-scriptures/ and also in these blog posts in particular https://lifeandirises.home.blog/2019/12/16/what-is-brave-its-short-for-brave-er-y/ and https://lifeandirises.home.blog/2020/10/21/wrapping-the-reigns/ tho I have also written in others, those ones jump out specifically it is important to me to express where my strength and hope lies openly among my other writings here.... Continue Reading →
Getting a Stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis can be hard. You may wonder what does this mean? Am I going to die tomorrow? While the disease at this stage is incurable it can still be treatable and these treatments can be tolerable and give you good quality of life. Metastatic breast cancer is a terminal... Continue Reading →
How can you find peace or comfort when things around you feel like they are in shambles? How do you get out of bed everyday and trudge forward when it could be very easy to huddle in a corner or under your covers? How do you pick up shards of what was once your life... Continue Reading →
When my husband and I bought our home many years ago beside the back door was a large Iris plant we inherited. It always brought forth giant purple blossoms. Well, for the first several years that Iris plant was safe. But every year after that despite my best intentions to avoid damaging it as I... Continue Reading →
When it comes to matters of faith and cancer I have alot things rumbling around in my brain. First, very often I have very well intending people tell me to speak against my cancer. Fight my cancer with my words. Because the secret they say to have a good reality or outcome for ourselves and... Continue Reading →
Hear me briefly describe how I got to my Stage 4 diagnosis. https://soundcloud.com/user-738867414/mystory
Hello, My name is Samantha and I am a Christian woman living with Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer that had progressed from Stage 2 in less than a yr (diagnosed MBC May 2019, diagnosed Stage 2 July 2018 ). I was diagnosed with Stage 2 at 36 years old and Stage IV at 37 years... Continue Reading →
I have big shoes to fill. It never ceased to amaze me how much knowledge Samantha had gained not only about her own disease, but the diseases her sisters were going through as well. While it won't be possible for me to even approach that level of conversation here, perhaps there are some things that... Continue Reading →
In my previous posting I eluded to the fact I wasn't sure what kind of Christmas we would end up with because of my lack of planning follow through. My beloved came through in the last hour with flying colors knowing I was just exhausted in spirit. For many blue collar workers today Christmas Eve... Continue Reading →
I've been feeling a streak of melancholy growing as the days tick closer and closer to Christmas that is completely involuntary. As i observe smiles, twirls and spins from live skaters at Bryant Park steaming on my TV nestled in my bed in varying layers of bundles depending on what stage i am in the... Continue Reading →
I've really enjoyed this series from fellow blogger Abigail Johnston. Below you will find links to this series which really resonates with me in many ways - I also encourage you to follow her blog linked below. We have quietly followed each other for years and I find many of her posts helpful and relatable.... Continue Reading →
I was/am a closet poet. I used to fill notebooks with my thoughts and poems. I have been published several times under my maiden name much earlier in my youth. But writing my feelings in poetry form seems to have taken a backseat to writing out my feelings in blog form. My blog has sort... Continue Reading →
I am a collector of old things. Old vintage things a lady might have on her dresser or even wear in the 1920's-60's but mostly in the early 20's and 30's. I have a pretty nice collection of vintage perfume bottles, that I keep on a glass tray held up by golden cherubs. A medium... Continue Reading →
I often think about what life will look like for my husband, my beloved without me when Stage IV breast cancer finally murders me. I worry he will withdrawal unto himself and live out the rest of his days alone. Consuming himself with work and church and always looking for my presence but never finding... Continue Reading →
This article written by Margaret Young (tho I know her from her handle in my support groups) for Nancy's Point #MetsMonday is the best way to close out BCAM https://nancyspoint.com/dear-breast-cancer-survivor-by-margaret-young-a-metsmonday-featured-post/ Dear Breast Cancer ‘Survivor’ by Margaret Young Dear breast cancer ‘survivor’, Psssst, I need to talk to you. Yes, you, the person who was diagnosed... Continue Reading →
As a kid chicken soup for my soul was Willy Wonka and The Chocolate factory with Gene Wilder. The opening credits with its visual cornucopia of every chocolate thing imaginable along with the orchestral version of the song Gene Wilder would sing later in his super secret edible world has me brimming with tears of... Continue Reading →
Life and Irises 