i[2]y’er Leah Shearer (Chair, Upstate NY) Gets Sweet Gig Blogging For “The Rochester Insider”
Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog.
Rock on, Leah!
Excerpt from her first post….
So this is the first blog entry for Insider. Although I’m not new to the blogosphere and have blogged for about two years, (if you call the year of myspace authentic) I am honored to have been asked by Insider to share with you a window into my life…after cancer. Wait…Routers redirect! (on the internet we don’t say stop the presses). Cancer? Yep…but I am here to tell you that there is an amazing life after the ‘big C’ and I’m living it.
Let’s just get this obligatory medical scoop out of the way. I was diagnosed with advanced thyroid cancer at 26. Then at 28 it was Hodgkins Lymphoma. I am now in remission from both.
So now let me go out on a limb and assume that you are thinking I am too young for cancer. Well, let’s just say I’ve said this a few times before probably littered with a few expletives. Yet I hope if there’s one thing you learn from reading my blog it’s that cancer is not an advanced age or life stage concern. After starting a support community of other young adult cancer survivors here in Rochester, I’ve opened my eyes to how many other young people in our community are affected.
This is also celebratory blog of sorts. Just this past Thursday I got the reassuring post-scan visit thumbs up. I am officially 18 months cancer free from Hodgkins. I graduated from full body scans every 90 days to scans every six months. And once again the pictures were clean. Woooohooo!
The parking garage at Wilmot is another story. Talk about an ordeal. Has anyone ever gotten lost in one? I have. But I think I have it down to a science now. My mom, who thankfully accompanies me to these nerve-racking appointments, parked the car while I checked in. Usually it takes an average of 5-10 minutes to find a spot. Finding the car can be a trial in itself, but it just so happens that the color coded level matched my shirt so we were all good to remember, even without those seemingly silly paper tickets. Actually, I highly advise these.
