Tag: chemotherapy
The Poster Survivor of Childhood Cancer and Heart Transplant
I had the great pleasure of meeting Terri Dome after her first photoshoot as the 2011 poster patient of the Texas Heart Institute. In telling her story, Terri hit on several topics that I thought were particularly insightful – but first a little background on Terri. Terri was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma at age 13….
Ted Kennedy Jr., A Commentary on Disability and Determination
Editor’s update: This interview was conducted in November, 2013 in conjunction with Ted Kennedy Jr.’s keynote address in Houston, Texas to cancer survivors and cancer caregivers. It was the 40th anniversary of the date he lost his leg to cancer at age 12. On April 8, 2014, Kennedy, 52, announced his candidacy for a seat…
Racing for Life
On the racetrack as in the cancer annals, “Fast Jack” Beckman has beaten the odds. Not too many of us would argue that piloting a three-million-dollar-per-year, ultra-supercharged automobile at speeds exceeding 320 miles per hour over a short, quarter-mile track requires nerves of steel. Nor is anyone likely to quibble that doing so while undergoing…
Viviendo! She’s Never Lost Her Voice
When soprano Barbara Padilla took the stage on “America’s Got Talent” in 2009 and performed a stunning rendition of “Con to Partiro,” a star was born. “That was the greatest single vocal performance we’ve ever had on ‘America’s Got Talent,’” said judge Piers Morgan. Padilla eventually won second place, but she comes in first when…
Tomorrow’s Pain
It was the size of the needle that made the biggest impression on me. Cindy Sanderson, a clinical psychologist in her mid-40s, was delivering a lecture to the psychiatry service of the cancer hospital where I was training. She didn’t offer the usual research on this or that psychiatric issue; instead, Sanderson described coping with…