Theresa M | What We Talk About (When We Talk About Cancer)

An opportunity to help someone

Theresa M | Patient | 06-30-2016

For every independent person, asking for help is difficult. When faced with a life threatening condition it can add to your already existing feelings of helpLESSNESS. Continue…

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Obliterate that awareness

Theresa M | Patient | 03-16-2016

The awareness that I live with chronic cancer is something that I wake up to and go to sleep with every night. It is a new way of living in Continue…

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Happiness is really a decision we make each day

Theresa M | Patient | 10-21-2015

Happiness is really a decision we make each day. Am I going to have a good day and work on finding Continue…

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I’d change their hearts and minds

Theresa M | Patient | 07-22-2015

I would change, if I could, my relationships with my daughters. They aren’t part of my life now Continue…

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Trust in Myself

Theresa M | Patient | 07-08-2015

I think for trust, I need to trust in myself that all will be well; No matter what. I am not Continue…

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This strength has brought me this far

Theresa M | Patient | 04-15-2015

My strength comes from my faith and my family and friends. But there are moments, as I recently experienced while hospitalized, of visceral terror at the thought of my life ending. I am fortunate to have the family and friends that I have who help remind me that I am strong and that this strength has brought me this far.

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I’ve been given a chance to reflect

Theresa M | 03-22-2015

In some ways my cancer has been a gift. It is just now, after 4 years of living with metastatic colon cancer, that I’ve been given a chance Continue…

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I wish there would be more honesty and candor

Theresa M | Patient | 03-04-2015

Wish is a difficult topic for me! I wish I never got cancer!!! If we contain “wish” to just the parameter of When We Talk About Cancer then it is a little more manageable. In my own life when my healthcare team, Continue…

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Our Mission

This is a place where anyone who counts themselves as a member of the Mass General Cancer Center community --- patient, family member, physician, nurse, researcher, social worker, care giver, administrator --- can come to read, think, and write about the words we all use, but which we don’t always understand in the same way. Often we use words and phrases that are common, that we use every day. Yet, their very familiarity creates the illusion of common understanding where, the fact is, we are frequently using these words in radically different ways, with radically different meanings. In our small way, WWTA is meant to help us work toward a common language and make the conversations we have about cancer more meaningful.

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