A Big "Thank You!": Fundraising Update

Thank you to everyone that donated this past fall. I was able to put your donations toward the cost of textbooks. I am so grateful for your support! It is my hope that continued fundraising will help me continue my studies. Please accept my deepest gratitude and I encourage you to pass on my fundraising page to anyone that is interested in donating.

Hope you had a wonderful holiday!

http://www.alltuition.com/community/Susan.Schmitt/

Need Insurance?

It saddens me that people who are ill cannot be allowed to focus on healing and not on their wallets. It my hope that changes in insurance and health care will support the well-being and health of every person in our country.

To all folks without health insurance and with "pre-existing conditions", check out government supported PCIP insurance plans: https://www.pcip.gov/

It has helped many people with serious medical conditions and who are without insurance and denied coverage due to exclusionary and subjective criteria called "pre-existing conditions". This is a transitional program until 2014 when "pre-existing conditions" will no longer be allowed to define coverage criteria. If you can't afford the premiums, there are Medicaid options to help you get the insurance and care you need. Please pass this on!

While many people will still have lingering medical bills even with PCIP, it is still a much needed resource and a step in the right direction. It just amazes me, don't medical personnel take oaths to heal not HURT people? Since when did medicine become a source of capital and not about healing the sick and caring for the weary? When was it ever okay to swindle those who are in most need of help? The sheer dishonesty..

This post was inspired by an image I saw at: http://giveneyestosee.com/blog/

Cancer and Beauty

I think this is an awesome website, featuring photography of women who have/are undergoing breast cancer treatments. http://www.beautyandthebreastproject.com/index2.php

It inspired me to share my own post-cancer survivor pictures. This is a big deal for me. I am pretty self-conscious of my multiple scars and the marks that allude all manner of tubes, biposies, and medical devices. The area that housed my port has exploded into a very visble, red kleoid scar. I am still in the habit of tying a scarf around my neck or wearing baseball t-shirts to hide it. I'm learning to show it off more, but I'm afraid of getting the same old questions, "Wow, how did you get that nasty scar?", "What happened to YOU?"

This is my venture into cancer self-confidence! Enjoy! [not too much! ;)]


Hamming it up.


















Showing off my survivor tattoo!










Stay strong! You are beautiful!

The Old Song-n-Dance Routine: Cancer Survivor Scholarships

I've been keeping myself busy this winter break by applying for cancer survivor scholarships. While I am very appreciative of the opportunity to apply, I often feel like these essays reinscribe some unfair and limiting stereotypes about cancer patients and their experiences. For example, for one scholarship I was asked to write a 1,000 word essay addressing one of the following prompts:

1. How has cancer impacted your life, illustrating why you should be selected as a scholarship recipient.
This is a pretty mild question, but there are some very subtle implicit assumptions. Cancer survivorship is a spectacle. We, as cancer survivors, are expected to rehash, over and over, the traumas of cancer treatment. We are expected to do so at anyone'e beck and call. We are expected to have cancer impact our lives profoundly for it to be a legitimate experience. You want money for school (which should be available for everyone)? Well, then you're just going to have to entertain us with your "terrible" story.

2. Describe how you have used your cancer experience to help others going through the same experience.
I know this sounds selfish, but are we expected to accept a very narrow niche(helping other cancer patients) just because we had cancer, too? We have enough on our plate looking after ourselves, don't you think? Is it not okay to pursue our own interests? This type of myopic focus encourages to ignore the systemic causes of cancer and become so issue-oriented that we won't realize how we are oppressed/oppress others.

3. Tell us about someone who inspired you during your treatment and how this impacted your decision to go to college/continue your education.
I can tell you that pretty much the only thing that inspired me during my treatment was a clean PET scan and a barf bag close by.

4. If you were to start your own non-profit cancer charity, what would be your mission?
Like I said, didn't we serve our time? Why does cancer status automatically denote that we should be involved in activism or charity? Is the work that I am/was already doing not important? As a survivor, why does my life's work have to revolve around cancer? I'M SICK OF CANCER.

I'm sure that there are many wonderful responses to these questions out there in the world, they're just not for me! Instead of trying to fit these assumptions, I just wrote my honest story; about how I was hardly making it by, how my partner and I left our jobs/school for treatment, how money was tight, how I was treated when I came back to grad school. I was honest. Maybe, it'll be so off-beat that it'll warrant some attention. *sigh* I sure hope so.

For all you cancer-survivors reading, you should check out I'm Too Young For This! /Lance Armstrong Foundation for tons of scholarships for school and financial obligations incurred through treatment: http://i2y.org/ (Click the bubble, "I need money" and it will link to you to all sorts of charity and scholarship goodness.) It doesn't matter where you are in your status or treatment, you are eligible. Look 'em up!