When I was first diagnosed with cancer last April, I asked my two queens of social etiquette...my amazing mother and mother-in-law if I should write thank you notes for all of the amazing things I had received and would receive over the coming months. Josh and I were both raised with extremely strong values and one of the things that was heavily ingrained in us (thankfully!) was to always write a thank you note. But if I'm being honest, time was not on my side. I mean a cancer diagnosis and treatment for it is extremely time consuming, in case you haven't picked up on that yet. Throw in there trying to sell a home, find a home to move to in a different state, packing a house for 6 people, having two major surgeries, moving and also just trying to stay afloat with normal life stuff...I felt like people would understand. And amazingly, both of my "mom's" agreed with that sentiment. So instead, I sent a digital message off (I HOPE I DID AT LEAST!) to the gift giver. A small collection … [Read more...]

Mom, Dad and I - last day of radiation!Chemo. Radiation. Cancer. Suck it. (sweatshirt courtesy of some amazing Kappa sisters - link at the bottom for where you can purchase!) My blog post titles are super creative, aren’t they? Done, Cancer Sucks, Working out with Cancer...well at least you can't accuse me of mincing words. In my Instagram poll that I discussed in my last post, people also wanted me to talk about my experience with radiation...and I've actually wanted to document it for myself and for other cancer patient's sake, so here we are! The thing is, I handled radiation fairly well and I count my lucky stars for that because if it would've been too challenging, I might have thrown in the towel before all 28 total treatments were completed. Seriously. So backing up a bit, I had my consult for radiation before chemo was even completed because I was anxious to get everything over with and behind me before the start of 2019. I wanted a “clean” slate with the new year. All … [Read more...]

So I put a little poll out there on my Instagram account and asked people what they wanted to hear about from me on the blog re: cancer. The response was fairly unanimous. People want to hear me complain. You want to hear about the hard stuff, the stuff that got me down. If you follow me on social media, I hope I've made it clear that this cancer stuff does absolutely suck. There are no two ways about it. Between the 5 mile runs and all the other positive fluff...there was a lot of very raw emotion, puke, crying, anxiety, constipation (ohhh emmm geee the CONSTIPATION!), threats to move back to Chicago (by myself)...the list goes on. So here goes...the negative things that hit me the hardest: The waiting: There is SO much waiting during this process. There was waiting for my mammogram, waiting for my biopsy appointment, waiting for the results from my biopsy/my diagnosis, waiting to know if the cancer had spread, waiting for my surgery, waiting for my second surgery, waiting to start … [Read more...]

As some of you may know, I just returned home from a three-day women's retreat to the amazing Canyon Ranch in the Berkshires, MA. My trip was sponsored by Heather Thomson, a reality star whose claim to fame was her 3 year run on The Real Housewives of New York City. As those that know me well, it is a show of which I never missed an episode, and despite the fact that she is no longer on the show, I have continued following her life through social media. I've always found her to be an inspiration to women and I love when anyone famous uses their platform to help motivate people to be a better version of themselves. To all inquiring minds, Heather is so much more than a reality star. An amazing mom, wife, friend, and entrepreneur. She’s incredibly charitable and seems to always be thinking about others. Regardless, I won this trip. This amazing, life-changing, timely trip...all because I voted. And when Josh and I went to our city hall that morning, the truth is...I had zero intentions … [Read more...]