It can be slightly overwhelming to deal with so many doctors and medical staff as a cancer patient or caregiver. My wife and I dealt with too many doctors to count during her cancer journey, so I did learn a few practical things that can make your doctor interactions go more smoothly. First, if you […]
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When I talk to people about the palliative care stage of Julia’s illness, they often ask me if we talked about her looming death and what would follow. The answer is yes, we did. Not surprising to those that knew her, Julia initiated most of these conversations. Often, what she brought up was how she […]
Read MoreOne of the best ways to support your loved one with cancer is to educate yourself about cancer. Many well-meaning people will tell you many “facts” about cancer and give you advice based on these “facts”. You need to know enough about the disease to separate fact from fiction in these interactions. Let me be […]
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November 5th was my 30th birthday. I suppose turning 30 is strange for most people, saying goodbye to your 20s. But moving into a new decade of life is not the strangest thing about turning 30 for me. There has been so much change in my life recently that turning 30 almost loses its novelty […]
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Support groups are a great way to meet with others going through a similar situation. These groups are a safe place to share your struggles, and discuss ideas of how to journey through cancer. These resources are for people who have cancer. I have another post with support group resources for spouses, partners or caregivers of people […]
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Growing up, I was a pretty fearful child. I don’t think it was for any profound reason – that was just who I was. I was shy, fearful of social embarrassment. I wasn’t too energetic, preferring the safety of sitting on the couch watching sports. I did play a lot of sports, but didn’t play […]
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I’ve been distracted from blogging for a while (more on that below) so I wanted to write a brief post on some of my recent thoughts. You’ll see why in the post below but some of my endeavours recently have been moving more slowly than I would like. This includes the new website I’m working […]
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I’d like to discuss the idea of questioning God. I know this is a controversial topic, but I’m not sure that it should be. During Julia’s and my long journey with her cancer, questions inevitably were raised about how God is working. We weren’t actively looking to discredit God, and we still 100% believed He […]
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Last week I watched the critically-acclaimed and Oscar-favourite Manchester by the Sea. It’s definitely the best movie I’ve seen this year and I think it should win Best Picture. The reason is that it takes a real look at grief. It doesn’t shy away from fully exploring the gritty, messy, uncomfortable aspects of grief. Without giving any big […]
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Julia’s desire was that the blog would continue in some way after she passed. Although I will never be able to live up to how she chronicled her story in such a powerful way, and with such strength and peace from God, I will attempt to jot down some thoughts on here once in a while. […]
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