Author Archive

It’s the day after Brain Matters most recent fundraiser, the day of Cinco de Mayo.  Today is my daughter Rachel’s 17th birthday; to those of you who follow my personal Facebook page you may have already seen that posting.  She’s driving today, seems like only a few years ago, she was driving a different kind of vehicle. I’ve said it before, but it’s always worth repeating…so glad to be here.  Glad to be here to see my kids growing up, ...

Are you a cancer survivor?  If you are, then you’ll get what I mean.

Public health experts seem to point out that overall rates of death from cancer haven’t budged, and that some cancers are of course a lot more survivable than others. Granted brain cancer isn’t one of those more survivable kinds of cancers, that’s why I keep doing what I can for that cause.  However, there’s light in this big dark tunnel.  More so than ever, a diagnosis of ...

Miss Chlo, how I will miss you, how we will all miss you.  You lived a long life in dog years. This March 25th would have been your 15th birthday.  Up until only a few months ago when your walking was off and your eating was off (a definite sign something was wrong), we were sure you were ...

Oh what a year to fundraise?  Every year for brain tumor awareness and the need for more research for the cause is a year to raise funds, but this year besides the other usual necessary needy causes out there in the world, the bar was also raised by the 2012 Election.  It’s always fun to incorporate some “perks” into a fundraiser, so I reached out to my friends and my “connections”, and they helped me incorporate some fun.  Thank you ...

“The participant’s perspectives are clouded while the bystander’s views are clear.” -Chinese Proverb

Loss is familiar, loss is current, recently near where I live due to Storm Sandy people lost their power, people lost their trees, people lost their furniture, people lost their pictures, their blankets, their memorabilia.  Kids lost their toys, their bicycles.  Many pets have been displaced and some have been lost…lost forever.  People have died.  The incredible relativity of life.  We lose our money, we lose ...

I was just at Mass. General for my annual check-up, and after what has been a tumultuous couple of months, filled with speculation that an ear infection that may have been something much worse, I found out I had no tumor growth since last year.  This is great news for me. This is news my husband and I hope to hear as we get our things together, leave our instructions for our pets, tell our kids what to do, and ...

Maybe it’s just because I’m not as impervious as I should be…as I need to be…as I usually am because these past few weeks I’ve been dealing with an earache, not just any earache-of course not.  If there’s anything I seem to have a knack for, it seems to be not getting the usual run of the mill physical ailments.  I get the unusual ailments.  This earache is due apparently to an infection in the bone of my ear, this ...

Almost all of us remember our birthdays, some us at a certain age forget when they are, some of us at a certain age want to forget when they are, some of us because of a certain kind of forgetfulness, forget when they are, but most of us…remember our birthdays, and we like it when other people remember them…most of us like that.  We remember other days too…those days are different for every one of us, although we share some ...

When I was first diagnosed with a brain tumor over 21 years ago, it wasn’t something I had heard a lot about.  Generally, if you heard about someone else you knew being diagnosed with a brain tumor, it wasn’t something you heard much more about afterwards because that person wasn’t given much of a positive outcome, and didn’t live much beyond your hearing this dreadful news.  As a patient, it was quite like this “we’re sorry to have to tell ...

A few weeks ago, Chris Collora from Patch.com in my hometown of Port Washington, NY, called to do a follow up story on the Walking Miles 4 Brain Matters. I have to put a shout out to Chris and Patch, they’ve been very supportive to Brain Matters, and to all that we’re trying to do to raise awareness for the cause.  I met Chris around this time last year, which was several months before the walk started in October. I ...