I apologize that it has been almost two months since my last blog post. For many this online silence translated to concern for my well-being, and I am sorry that I made people worry. I haven’t written a post recently for several reasons. First, I wanted to spend the Holidays and my winter vacation focused …
End Well 2018: Talking about what it means to end well helps us all to live well
Essay Featured in the Washington Post – Please support NBTS so that more stories can be heard!
Honored to have my essay featured online and in today's print edition of the Washington Post, originally published in Pulse: voices from the heart of medicine. I wrote this essay before my recurrence, but it still captures the complexities of identity when faced with life-threatening illness. I would like to thank Diane Guernsey and Paul Gross from …
End Well ePatient Ambassador
Over the course of the past month, especially after writing my piece titled, "In Thinking About my Death, I Discovered How I Truly Wish to Live," I've heard through the grapevine that several friends are concerned I'm dying right now. To clear the air...I'm not. 😉 I can understand where this worry comes from. I …
Ho’omaika’i ana
Yesterday, my partner and I returned from a much-needed, relaxing trip to Oahu. We had an amazing time. Even though my hair started to fall out from my radiation treatments, my ever-present medical condition momentarily faded away. We slept...a lot; We rested at the pool, the beach, and back at the pool; We coasted around …
Vote because lives depend on you: A Brain Cancer Patient’s Call to Get Out and Vote!
A version of this post also appeared on Medium I sit here, exhausted, almost unable to write after my first round of immunotherapy and radiation treatments for my second recurrence of a high-grade anaplastic oligodendroglioma (read: brain cancer). I see my friends actively participating in our democratic process: campaigning, phone banking, getting out the vote. …
Changing Course
September 25th, 11am: I sat in my doctor's office at UCSF waiting for the results of my MRI. I've been in this same office numerous times with a picture of mountains hanging on its sterile white walls. Even as a medical student, I wonder why we design doctors' offices this way. If you're going to make it all white, keep it all white without putting up a picture of a place patients would rather be. Otherwise, and preferably, make the room more warm, welcoming...human.
“Who Am I Now?” -Pulse Publication
Last fall I wrote a piece on the complexities of identity when entering medical school as a patient. with a lot of help and encouragement, it has finally been published on Pulse - voices from the heart of medicine. Click HERE to read my essay. In the coming months I hope to continue this writing to capture …
In Thinking About my Death, I Discovered How I Truly Wish to Live
For months, I had two task reminders saved to my computer’s desktop. The note on the left side of the screen listed the assignments I still had to complete for school. The note on the right side of the screen read: “Fill out advance directive.” These notes were a daily reminder of my conflicting identities. The left-side version of me: a 26-year-old medical student with many opportunities ahead; the right-side version of me: a young adult living with terminal brain cancer.
Senator John McCain’s Funeral Planning was not about Politics but a Lesson on how to End Well
A response to the New York Times piece, “How McCain Got the Last Word Against Trump.”
