Dr Me

When first diagnosed, the shock had my head spinning. Talk about having your life plans hijacked. I was self-employed, under-insured, living alone, with all my family living on the East Coast. My friends in Ojai were shocked and overwhelmed as well, but lovingly showed up as “family” for me.

I needed a place to hear myself, […]

In August of 2010, I had launched my wholesale artisanal soap company: Utopia Bath, Ltd, at the New York International Gift Show.

Two weeks later I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and the news kept spiraling out of control. The news was increasingly surreal. After all, I was a woman, with no history of ANY cancer […]

Survivor

Over a period of six years I lost my voice three times. The first time it happened when I got a really bad cold. I couldn’t speak above a whisper. After weeks and weeks of constant laryngitis I went to an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. He told me I had nodules on my vocal cords. Speech therapy was recommended. Several hundred dollars later with no noticeable improvement I asked what else could be done? He told me they could be removed but they may come back. I said “I’ll take that chance. I just want to be able to talk again.”

For those of us with cancer, it initially hits us as a jolt out of nowhere, and quickly becomes an adventure, with unpredictable twists, turns, highs and lows. It’s as if we’re on a train going somewhere driven by someone else. There are many of us on the cancer adventure train. It was a complete […]