It was a shadowy end of the year in our family, punctuated by peaks of brightness from our silly six year old boy anticipating Christmas. While everyone else was finishing their holiday shopping, word came that my young niece attempted to commit suicide. It struck me that this attempt was made now, at the darkest time of… Continue reading Be the Safety Net, Don’t Let Meanness Win
The Period at the End
I am reframing this from a story about loss, loss of fertility and youthful hormones, loss of yet another piece of my femininity to something else. This bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy will bring a gift of release.
Follow the Money Trail$: Keeping your Contributions Local
I had the chance to speak at a local fundraiser last night. Because we are on the cusp of going from Ovarian Cancer Awareness month to Breast Cancer Awareness month, I thought I would share what I read last night and tell you why it is so important to make charitable donations to your local community… Continue reading Follow the Money Trail$: Keeping your Contributions Local
Magical Thinking and the Cancer Mystery Tour
I have always believed that if you go looking for trouble, you will find it. I have been conscious of wanting to choose another way, to WILL myself to good health, to think only Good, Healthy, Life Affirming thoughts. But like a child that learns about fire the hard way, I am still nursing my… Continue reading Magical Thinking and the Cancer Mystery Tour
A little can go a long way
Oct 15-16 I will walk 39 miles to raise money for people battling breast cancer, putting food on their families tables, helping to pay for treatment co-pays and necessary testing. I need your help to get to that finish line! In lieu of going out to lunch one day this week, please make a tax-deductible donation!
Looking for Hope at the Bottom of a Well
A date has been set for early November. The gravity of a date takes the notion of surgery out of the conceptual and a knowing dread creeps into my body, a cellular cloak of warning. I'm having flashbacks of it all, from diagnosis news to having big decisions on the table, surgical options pushed and… Continue reading Looking for Hope at the Bottom of a Well
When You Cut Away the Risk, What is Left?
What is TRUE and what is just convenient to tell your patients? Is there a lack of current data, or does my doctor lack understanding in this particular area? Is it just too uncomfortable and inconvenient for her to tell me the truth or is she worried about legal culpability, imagining some future lawsuit and… Continue reading When You Cut Away the Risk, What is Left?
I Have a Secret
I have a secret. It is hidden away underneath my shirt, and only revealed under the most private and intimate of circumstances. I reveal myself to only a select few. My husband, my mother, my aunt, a very few of the closest girlfriends will catch a glimpse. I took for granted my natural born nipples.… Continue reading I Have a Secret
Making Some Room
Hello Friends, Last week I launched my new Life Coaching website at http://www.melissaeppardcoaching.com/. This new site provides a space where I can connect with more people in search of coaching as I grow my practice. My intention is to keep this blog at Melissashealinghope.com going for writing of a more personal nature. I have described the writing of… Continue reading Making Some Room
May 16th: Forged in Fire
On this day 2 years ago, the shattering blow came. The words I heard through the end of the receiver were surreal and an inky black curtain of uncertainty closed on me. But I am still here and I can say that we are not defined by the things that happen to us. As we are… Continue reading May 16th: Forged in Fire
Melissa's Healing Hope 