Wendy Harpham on Healthy Survivorship

Your Friend's Keeper?

You've survived cancer. Now a friend develops the same type of cancer and is making horrible decisions (in your opinion). She's declining conventional therapies for a treatable cancer or deciding against telling her children she is sick. What's a good friend to do?

Happiness in the Storm of Alzheimer's Disease

You will never hear me call cancer or any other horrible disease a "gift." So how can I talk of happiness when dealing with Alzheimer's Disease (AD)?

Family's Lesson on Healthy Survivorship

The Biorkman family celebrated Christmas last week. November 8th, to be exact. Is their calendar messed up? No, their timing was perfect.

Unexpected Treasures

When I was in practice I had little free time. During those precious minutes when I was not responsible for the care of my patients or my children, I was highly selective with what I was willing to read or do. But I paid a price.

October 18th

I've set this post to publish at one minute after midnight, when a change will take place while I'm fast asleep.

An Act of Kindness

As I enter our local market tonight, a youngish woman is walking ahead of me with a cast on her leg. I daydream for a moment about how inconvenient it must be, although it doesn't seem to be slowing her down. 

Minutes later, I'm at the checkout with two brown-paper packages of meat. I notice the woman in the cast putting her credit card away just as my food begins its ride toward the scanner. 

Facing Facts, At Least Briefly

Right or Wrong? extols the benefits of good communication between doctors and patients. But what if a patient makes the request, "Doctor, if a time comes that I'm dying, please don't tell me I'm dying." 

It seems a reasonable request, if knowing "would only increase my anxiety and make it impossible for me to hope for future better days," as described in the post's comments by Bint Alshamsa. 

Stronger or Weaker?

Pastor Carlos Wilton refers to a quote by Friedrich Nietsche, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." Wilton, a survivor whose lymphoma is currently stable, says, "Those who have the audacity to believe in the resurrection can attach a little addendum to that saying: Even the thing that one day kills us will do the same."

Stroke of Insight

What does a stroke have to do with Healthy Survivorship? In my case, everything.

As a physician, my unwanted cancer diagnosis in 1990 was the beginning of a fantastic opportunity to learn about illness and healing in ways I couldn't when I was healthy. This morning, another doctor shared with me some of the lessons she learned through having a stroke.

Magic of Wendy's Eagles

Last spring, I sent out hundreds of emails and letters announcing the "Final Flight" of Wendy's Eagles. After raising $15,813, two of my children and many friends walked the 5K with me at the Dallas Lymphomathon to raise money for the Lymphoma Research Foundation. Then Wendy's Eagles retired.

Now spring is approaching, and Wendy's Eagles is getting ready for April 2008. What's the deal?

Empathy-o-meter for Healthy Survivors

Empathy is the ability to understand and vicariously experience the feelings of someone else. This skill is adaptive, helping you respond to another person's needs in healthy ways.

With the rise of support groups -- and now Internet chats and blogs -- patients sharing similar problems can easily seek out and find each other. And they do. So can a Healthy Survivor ever have too much empathy?

The Struggle to Choose Life

A girlfriend of mine is struggling today, the anniversary of the loss of a love. I'm reminded of an ancient prayer: Please don't let me die before I die. For me, the greatest way to honor the memory of a loved one is to embrace life despite the loss.

Whether or not the significance of this date as an anniversary comes to my friend's mind is beyond her control. Hope lies in how she responds.

Stepping up to Healthy Survivorship

Three steps lead to Healthy Survivorship: knowledge, hope and action.

Step One: Knowledge. Unlike learning how to tie one's shoes, learning how to be a Healthy Survivor is a never-ending study session. Why? Because knowledge about preventing, diagnosing and treating medical problems is evolving. Because bodies are aging. Because one's understanding of how to deal with stress, change and loss - as well as with relaxation, sameness and gain - grows with each experience.

Sea Legs of Survivorship

"I know this sounds strange, but all I want is a normal life." My favorite refrigerator magnet captured my longing to use adjectives such as "uneventful" or "boring" when describing my day.

Hope Begins in the Dark

I expected to blog about Jamie Reno's new book, Hope Begins in the Dark, but only after I'd finished reading it. I am enjoying the short pieces by a wide variety of lymphoma survivors too much to wait. Reno, an acclaimed Newsweek journalist, singer-songwriter and lymphoma survivor believed a book that shared stories of survivors would be inspiring and informative to people just starting out or struggling with their cancer journey.

Randy Pausch, A Model Healthy Survivor

If you haven't seen the video, "The Last Lecture" by Professor Randy Pausch, try to carve out 75 minutes from your schedule to hear what this model Healthy Survivor has to say about life.