Category Archive: Heather Millar

May 2012

• Friday, May 18, 2012
  A Cancer Diagnosis Should Not Equal Poverty

  By Heather Millar I remember clearly when I first realized that cancer too often translates into a financial meltdown: I was sitting (more...)

• Wednesday, May 16, 2012
  Carcinogens in Lipstick? ATM Receipts? How Can This Be?

  By Heather Millar Every day, we live in a soup of manufactured chemicals, and only a few of them have been tested for safety. Even (more...)

• Friday, May 11, 2012
  If It Sounds too Good to be True, It Probably Is

  By Heather Millar Not long after I was diagnosed with cancer, an alternative medicine professional shared this kernel of wisdom: (more...)

• Wednesday, May 09, 2012
  The Funny Side of Cancer

  By Heather Millar OK, I know that cancer isn’t really funny. But funny things happen to cancer patients: I got into a bike (more...)

• Thursday, May 03, 2012
  When Speaking Up is a Matter of Life and Death

  By Heather Millar Cancer care is complicated, stressful. The outcome is always uncertain. You’d think that in this sort of highly (more...)

• Wednesday, May 02, 2012
  Moving Ahead With a Plan

  By Heather Millar I have an appointment with my primary care doc in about a week. Luckily for me, I won’t have to recite chapter (more...)

April 2012

• Thursday, April 26, 2012
  Even More Reasons to Eat Less, Exercise More

  By Heather Millar Within just a few hours of being diagnosed with breast cancer, I searched desperately for the bright side. “Well,” (more...)

• Wednesday, April 25, 2012
  When You Don’t Want to Get Wigged Out

  By Heather Millar As I’ve mentioned before, I participated in a clinical trial that saved 75 to 80 percent of my hair during chemo. (more...)

• Friday, April 20, 2012
  Your Sex Life on Cancer. What Sex Life? Part 2

  By Heather Millar In my last post I tried to address what we cancer patients can do to keep the romantic fires burning during (more...)

• Wednesday, April 18, 2012
  Your Sex Life on Cancer: What Sex Life? Part 1

  By Heather Millar This may be stating the obvious: Cancer is not an aphrodisiac. For most of us, thoughts of romance fly out the (more...)

• Friday, April 13, 2012
  Why Do You Walk?

  By Heather Millar Just as I was starting chemo, in late October 2010, the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer came to San Francisco, where I (more...)

• Wednesday, April 11, 2012
  Don’t Make Chemo Harder Than It Already Is

  By Heather Millar Her first chemo infusion had been four days earlier and, as might be expected, she was feeling terrible in all the (more...)

• Friday, April 06, 2012
  Do You Really Need That? At Least Talk About It

  By Heather Millar I’ve been working on a book proposal for the last couple weeks and thinking a lot about the cost of medical care (more...)

• Wednesday, April 04, 2012
  Good Luck Charms

  By Heather Millar A couple of weeks ago, as I was dusting the bookshelves in our family room, my daughter asked, “Mom, why do you (more...)

March 2012

• Friday, March 30, 2012
  How to Reach Out When a Patient Says No

  By Heather Millar One of my dearest friends called a few days ago, sounding upset and confused: A childhood friend of hers has Stage IV, (more...)

• Wednesday, March 28, 2012
  Chemo Means Going Bald? Not Necessarily

  By Heather Millar When I wrote my last post about hair, I wasn’t completely clear about my hair situation because it would have made (more...)

• Friday, March 23, 2012
  Your Hair After Chemo

  By Heather Millar I need to get a new head shot. The picture that you see to the right of this blog post is about three years old. (more...)

• Wednesday, March 21, 2012
  Your New Best Friend: An Audio Recorder

  By Heather Millar If you were diagnosed with cancer forty years ago, your doctor might not even have told you about your diagnosis. (more...)

• Friday, March 16, 2012
  I’m Not Afraid! Or Am I?

  By Heather Millar After the initial few freak-out weeks following my breast cancer diagnosis, I thought of myself as a pretty (more...)

• Wednesday, March 14, 2012
  When Denial Can Kill You

  By Heather Millar Three in four people don’t know many of the common warning signs of cancer, according to a survey of 2,090 people (more...)

• Friday, March 09, 2012
  I’m Brave and Heroic? What About You?

  By Heather Millar I think I know how HRH Princess Diana felt. I may have been waiting my whole life to write that sentence. A few (more...)

• Wednesday, March 07, 2012
  You Don’t Have to Go It Alone

  By Heather Millar About a week ago, I was talking to a friend who’s about six months behind me in the breast cancer (more...)

• Friday, March 02, 2012
  Baggage that Lingers On

  By Heather Millar Most cancer patients I know have an all-too-detailed sense of the toll that their disease and treatment takes on (more...)

February 2012

• Wednesday, February 29, 2012
  Some Thoughts on Numbers

  By Heather Millar At my oncology check-up earlier this month, I ran into an elegant woman in the waiting room of the Breast Care Center. (more...)

• Friday, February 24, 2012
  Skiing on Ash Wednesday

  By Heather Millar I went skiing on Ash Wednesday. For those of you who aren’t religious, or who practice a different religion, Ash (more...)

• Friday, February 17, 2012
  Sharing Our Stories, and Our Data, May Save Lives

  By Heather Millar When it comes to cancer research, you might say that I’m an outlier. Since I was diagnosed with breast cancer 18 (more...)

• Wednesday, February 15, 2012
  Happy Chemo-versary to me

  By Heather Millar Last Friday marked exactly one year since I finished chemotherapy. I’m calling it my “chemo-versary.” I took (more...)