More Blogs I Like

Technorati says there are 71 million blogs out there (up from 55 million when I started my blog about eight months ago), and the site lists 3,257 of them devoted to cancer.

Choosing among cancer blogs is akin to running the gauntlet of the cereal aisle at the grocery store: some are tasty but lack nutrition, others are good for you but taste like cardboard.

As I work my way down that aisle, I’ll be adding blogs I like to this list.

Here are, in no particular order, my favorite blogs, with an update on each.

Jill's Cancer Journey
My friend Jill Cohen, who also lives in Seattle, blogs about her experience with metastatic breast cancer at http://jillscancerjourney.blogspot.com/.

Jill was recently quoted in People magazine in a sidebar to a story on Elizabeth Edwards' breast cancer recurrence.

And if you're in the mood for a little cancer humor, go to her blog and read about her experience seeing the play "Spamalot," adapted from a Monty Python film. She and a couple of other women came away singing the song, "I'm not dead yet"--very appropriate for those of us living with metastatic disease.

As the Tumor Turns
The blog is written by Liz, a woman in her 50s, who is in debt, has no income, no health insurance, and, until recently, had a grapefruit-sized (an aside: who taught oncologists to compare tumors to fruit?) tumor between her lungs: a high-grade, highly aggressive, stage IV lymphoma. And she manages to laugh about it. And make me laugh with her—sometimes while crying at the same time.

Now that Liz is done with treatment, she's chronicling her hair growth in her typical style:

"Monday Hair Blogging: Not much growth to report this week other than a rather alarming rise in the freaky little Cupie Doll ridge running along the top of my skull. What the hell am I supposed to do with this crazy thing? It's wild!"

Go to her blog to see the photos, or to suggest a style solution.

The Cheeky Librarian
Being a journalist, I love librarians.

Librarians can find information that journalists would never be able to locate on their own, and they LOVE doing it. My favorite folks locally are the research librarians at the downtown Seattle public library. When I call them with a tough research question, they sing. They come back to the phone with stacks of books and read to me over the phone. I have yet to be told, "We can't help you."

But I digress. I have two favorite blogging librarians, The Cheeky Librarian, Teresa Hartman, a medical librarian living the good life in Nebraska after treatment for cancer in her left cheek. and Rachel (see below).

The Cheeky Librarian hasn't been blogging much lately, only one post on April 4 and one on March 3, her birthday. (She wants a new bike, with tassles on the handlebars.)

Teresa has a great post for people newly diagnosed with the kind of cancer she had (which I am NOT going to try to type), which was in the cheek, hence the name of her blog:
Newly diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma?

Women’s Health News
Rachel, a medical librarian in Nashville, Tennessee, blogs about women’s health information (not only cancer topics). She recently moved her blog to a new Web address, and the new format looks great.

Rachel is both fun to read and authoritative—I think she may be the Raisin Bran Crunch of my blog aisle.

To get a taste of her style, read:
Pee Standing Up

And:
New York’s City-Branded Condoms a Big Hit

Life Changing Cancer
Lynne began blogging to fight the isolation of having a rare and aggressive type of cancer, gallbladder cancer.

"Information was hard to find," she writes, "and I want to chronicle my experiences, to share what I have learned about this diagnosis and its physical and emotional implications. I also want to explore the spiritual implications of receiving a life threatening diagnosis."

Recent posts are about fatigue after her recent chemo, and shopping for a new mattress--"it was a good shopping to do when you just want to lay down!"

She also does the emoticons one better with this graphic of herself lying down: O__/___/\_

Read more:
Life Changing Cancer

And One Web Site: Rebel1ib8
This one is actually a Web site, not a blog, but what the heck, it's one of my favorites.

Jacqueline, author of the Rebel1in8 Web site, has a great image on her blog—when I first saw it, I thought it was a one-breasted Barbie doll, wrapped in pink ribbon, that disappears as the ribbon collapses.

Turns out, that’s no Barbie doll. It’s Jacqueline herself, all wrapped up in five yards of pink satin ribbon.

See it for yourself at www.rebel1in8.com.

Jacqueline and I have been e-mailing back and forth about how much we hate pink, and our various efforts to de-pink, and she also told me about her clothing line for women who have had breast cancer surgery but don't want to wear a prosthesis.

I DO wear my prosthesis most of the time when I'm not at home (I almost never wear it at home), but I was really intrigued by this idea. I went to her Web site yesterday and checked out her great Rebel necklaces (I'm ordering one as soon as I can decide what color of beads I want), and the clothes.

The clothes are great! My latest brainstorm is to make a trip to New York, try on Jacqueline's designs and get someone (Laurie, someone means you, in this case!) to take pictures to post on my blog--the first one-breasted woman fashion show! Or maybe not, has anyone else done this?

Then I want to buy some of these clothes to wear.

Here's the link to the online slide show: Fashion Show

@ Jeanne Sather 2007.

Comments

[Laurie]

Is it okay for me to wear Jacqueline's fashions even though I have two breasts (they're small, so they sort of total to one)? These are great looking clothes. Same goes for the necklaces. I love seeing people doing something so creative and entrepreneurial.

[Lynne Dahlborg]

Hey Jeanne - Thanks for including my blog on this list, and for the kind things you say about my blog. I was amazed at the statistics about the number of blogs out in the world, and the numbers focusing on the cancer journey. We are making community by sharing our stories!
Lynne