![]() There was no diagnosis then, and I am grateful for that because the options back then would have been devastating. When I heard the news that it was a tumor I was born with, I was instantly taken back to the four years I spent in and out (mostly in) of children’s hospitals in the early to mid-’60s. Since my cancer in 1997, I have been blessed with three brain tumors, all pituitary tumor recurrences of the one I was born with. We are fortunate to have life and obligated to live our days. Our bodies are incredibly fragile and vulnerable to many things, but they are also phenomenally resilient and, ultimately, temporary. I love to share this newfound wisdom with people each time I speak of cancer. That is one of the reasons I founded the 4th Angel mentoring program () located at Taussig Cancer Center at Cleveland Clinic. I know things that can benefit someone else who is facing this disease. I wouldn’t have the platform to honor her life and help the next person through their cancer. Without the pain of the loss of my mother and my own knowledge of what it feels like to have had cancer, ![]() It may seem hard to believe, but I am incredibly grateful for my cancer - every day! I wouldn’t have the family I have if I hadn’t first gone through the life reset from my cancer. I desperately wanted to do life better this time. I skated harder and lived more “alive” than I did before. Now I had the opportunity to take this second chance and make the absolute most of it. My first year of survivorship included addressing different cancer groups as the newest member of the “club.” I knew what it felt like to fight for my life with everything I had, and life felt totally like a privilege. I strongly felt that my cancer was the result of how I had been living my life, and now I would live it differently. I affectionately called it Filet-o-Scott.Īfter all that, it was back to life, but my life felt completely different. My survivorship started the very first day, with the biopsy, and followed me through several months of chemotherapy and a 38-staple surgery, in which the incision went from my sternum to my groin. These wigs are so much easier.” She was teaching me how to go through my own cancer without even knowing she was doing so. She would say things like “Oh, this chemotherapy! I have finally found a way to lose all this weight!” or “I’ve wanted to quit smoking all these years, and with chemo, I have no desire” and “I’ve always hated my own hair. Strong memories of my mother came back to me in a way I didn’t expect.
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