Silver Lining Video Series: Eating During Cancer Treatment

Welcome to the third video in the series! You all have been so kind and supportive of these videos. I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate it. Truly. As many of you may recall, while I was going through chemo, I was one of the few people who was completely unresponsive to the anti-nausea and anti-barfing medications. I was toilet-bound from the first drop of Taxotere until the last drop of Adriamycin (a/k/a “The Red Devil”). As hard as my oncologist and I tried to garner any insight into the reasoning for it, there was really no explanation for my persistent state as Madame Vomitus Rexness. The Silver Lining is that I did find a few foods that I could eat during these tumultuous times and thought that I would take the time to share them with you. I’d love to hear what foods work (or didn’t!) for you or …

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The Silver Lining Video Series: How to Be a Friend to Someone With Cancer

The second video in the series is related to how to be a friend to someone with cancer. As of a couple of months ago, I am in the yucky position of being a friend to a girlfriend with cancer….AGAIN. I’ve had two other (really good!) girlfriends go through the f-bomb cancer experience. Geesh. Even after having been a nurse and a patient, I’m realizing (again!) just how difficult it is. What I really want to do is make it go away. But since I can’t do that, I’m doing my best to follow my own advice and do what people did for me during my experience (with high hopes that it is a wee bit of a Silver Lining for her!). As I mentioned, I have so much gratitude for the people who were present for me and my family during my experience. They made all the difference in the …

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The Silver Lining Video Series: How to Talk With Children About Cancer

My beloved mother-in-law used to love the phrase, “It’s a Big Day.” She used the phrase quite liberally, which is one of the things that I adored about her. To think that we have lots of “Big Days” in our life is such a Silver Lining! Well, today is a “Big Day” for The Silver Pen because today I am launching the first in a series of videos.  Yep. That’s right. The Silver Pen is going 3-D. Well, not 3-D, exactly…clearly I’m new in this arena! The first video is “How to Talk With Children About Cancer.” It was super important for me to lead with this video because including children in a cancer diagnosis and treatment in the family is a top priority, yet so very (understandably!) challenging for families. My greatest hope for this video is that it will provide some tools to help anyone who is diagnosed …

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