Category: On Tap
-
The Power of Falling Apart
•
It started with my heart racing—no, sprinting. My breath turned shallow, my hands shook, my thoughts blurred. I heard words but couldn’t understand them. My mouth moved, but nothing came out. I was trapped inside my own body, unable to make sense of what was happening. No matter how much…
-
The Silver Lining of (the City of) Hope
•
Moving across the country is stressful under the best of circumstances. Doing it in the midst of a cancer diagnosis and a life-changing genetic discovery? Overwhelming doesn’t even begin to cover it. When my family relocated from North Carolina to San Diego, I had no idea just how much this…
-
Medical Specialist Speed Dating
•
Being diagnosed with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome means re-entering the dating world – sort of. My medical tour around San Diego has evolved from a search for an oncology team to specialist speed dating, where finding the one(s) is less about romance and more about survival. It’s a whirlwind of rapid-fire Q&A,…
-
BIRADS – what the hell is that?
•
Overwhelmed by this looming cancer cloud I logged in to mychart to look at the radiologist’s notes from the mammogram and ultrasound the day before. “BIRADS Score – 4C – suspicious abnormality – very suspicious for malignancy – biopsy should be considered.” What the hell is a BIRADS score? What…