Everyone knows the cliche, ?You can?t take it with you.? Well, I beg to differ. I was on call a couple of weekends back, and since we did a procedure on Friday afternoon, it required a Saturday morning follow-up with the patient at the hospital. I arose early to shower and dress. Being a Satur?day, the dress code is more […]

I love springtime! The warmer weather and greening of the earth consoles my soul. All the new life around seems to murmur words of hope. Flowers especially make me feel so alive and in tune with nature, their beauty offering some peace. Now I have a confession to make: The plants on my front porch are fake. I have fake […]

Throughout the past five years of my life I have often been asked how I can have such positive attitude all the time. Let?s face it. I have an advanced stage, stigmatized, kind of embarrassing cancer that nobody wants to talk about. Having anal cancer is no picnic and I must be honest and tell you that I have had […]

With St. Patrick?s Day looming on the horizon of our calendars, I thought it ironic the subject of ?luck? has been on my mind as of late. Recently, an article was published that cited the circumstance of simple ?bad luck? as the cause for most cancers. And while genetics and heredity do play a role in some cancers, the number?when […]

With 2015?s predictable arrival come many New Year?s resolutions. I admit that I have made many of these commitments to myself over the years to effect control over the indulgences of life. Many want to lose weight and get in better physical shape, or perhaps they are more personal like working on an important relationship that is not all it […]

The holidays are upon us and, as is typical with the last gasps of fall?s balmy days having come to a close, our neighborhood is alight with outdoor activities that are much more pleasant in warmer temperatures. The least of which is certainly not decorating the outside of one?s home for Christmas. With the predicted forecast for a cold front […]

With the start of every November, I notice a familiar change in social media. People start various ?campaigns of gratitude? on Face?book, Twitter and Instagram with the dawning of the month in which Thanks?giving falls. On the very first day many posts appeared with a #1 followed by a brief description of something that the writer was grateful for in […]

My husband and I love to vacation in Florida at the beach. One time a few years ago, we went with another couple that are our close friends and have a place right on the ocean. We had a phenomenal time not doing much of anything. Everyday we went to the beach, walked the shore, napped in the sun and […]

I don?t know how much you know about Twitter. It?s kind of a free-for-all chat land where you don?t have to follow anyone you don?t want to, but depending on what you tweet out and #hashtag certain tweets are pushed into your ?feed.? I? #stage4cancer quite often and therefore most of the other folks that do that as well are […]

Editor?s note: With this issue we welcome Michele Longa?baugh, a friend of the Free Press, as a new columnist for our Health & Fitness Focus. ?You have cancer.? When people hear those words for the first time they are flooded with many emotions?fear, anger, sadness, guilt, sorrow and shock, just to name a few. What I have become conscious of […]