Raya’s First Pregnancy. She’s due June 19th, 2024, and was confirmed pregnant with more than one.
Our baby princess Raya is all grown, and currently expecting her first litter of puppies due June 19th. We’re so excited for her, and for the families who will take her puppies home!
It’s been ages since I’ve done much in the way of writing about my cancer journey here, but it’s time to start writing again.
A snapshot of my cancer and faith journeys, and the bridging of two worlds into one centered around God.
Just short of two years after my cancer diagnosis, I hit rock bottom. A friend of mine had died of his cancer, other friends were experiencing recurrences of theirs, I had strange things going on with my body, and thought for sure that my cancer had returned. I feared that I had just lived my last good days, and that I was going to die.
While in such distressed states, I've needed to be able to look someone in their eyes and just know that they're with me, that their hearts and their intentions towards me are pure, and I've needed to feel their strength, their confidence, and their positive energy as my own, because lord knows I've needed every bit of it.
#WorldCancerDay 2016. I found my post from last year where I was finally ready to start opening up about my challenges with post-traumatic stress after cancer. I thought it would take a few months to write up, but it ended up taking all year, and I'm still not done.
Cold weather never bothered me before cancer. My body would just naturally adjust on its own, and all was well. After cancer has been an entirely different story, and as the temperatures drop below 40F, my body just wants to grind to a halt on me. My quality of life was miserable, and I just couldn't bear it anymore. I started to make some changes, and have the following cold weather survival tips.
In November of 2015, I was invited by the Cancer Knowledge Network to write a guest post. CKN is part of Current Oncology, Canada's leading oncology journal, which is read by thousands of oncology professionals and patients.
This is Part II of my three part series of essays on my struggles with post-traumatic stress after cancer. In Part I described what the whole experience felt like, and in this part I'm sharing the story of all that I did to cope with and overcome it, and all of the wonderful people that helped me get there. Fighting cancer was the easy part. Recovering from PTS after cancer is so much harder, because at first you have no idea who or what you're fighting against, only to realize it's you.
I'm amused that the ink has hardly dried on my last blog titled "There Is No Easy Cancer," only to now see an article over at GQ titled, "I Had Testicular Cancer and It Wasn't That Bad." Oh my...
On at least two occasions when I've mentioned my cancer story to new friends or acquaintances that hadn't known, I've received comments that were just short of dismissive that testicular cancer is an "easy cancer", alluding to the high cure rate. I'll be honest in saying that I haven't been offended by such comments, because I know that short of having been there in some way themselves, it's simply impossible for people to truly know what a cancer diagnosis feels like, nor all that one entails.
I thought I had been doing so well after cancer. I had a new job and was back to life and living, but little did I know just how wounded I was inside. The stress of cancer survivorship started getting the better of me. A cancer warrior friend had died, and other friends of mine were experiencing recurrences. I had strange pains in my body, and thought for sure that my cancer was back, and that I was next. I had done so well for so long, but was so spooked and simply fell to pieces just short of two years after my cancer diagnosis.
Old Rag Mountain is one of the most popular hikes in the entire mid-Atlantic region, and also one of the most strenuous and spectacular. It peaks at 3291 feet, has a total elevation gain of 2500 feet from parking lot to peak, and includes nearly a mile of rock scrambling to get to the top. It's an extremely challenging hike, but worth it for all of the spectacular views.
All material and images on are © Steve Pake, except where noted. Please contact me for any re-use permission.
