WELCOME TO OUR BLOG
Welcome to the SevenPonds.com blog – a community-driven extension of SevenPonds.com! I hope you find comfort and community in the resources and stories featured here. I’m always happy to hear from readers and can be reached at suzette@sevenponds.com.
FEATURED
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Who Cares for the Caregivers?: Millions of family caregivers across the United States feel abandoned and alone -
Final Messages of the Dying: Finding meaning in metaphors and symbolic language -
Will I Die in Pain?: For patients living with a terminal illness, the fear of pain is very real
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Categories
Tag Archives: Cancer
One Man Shares the Life Lessons He Learned From His Nine Year-Old Hospital Roommate with Cancer in One Remarkably Beautiful Poem
Canadian spoken word poet Shane Koyczan delivers an emotionally charged performance of his heartbreakingly beautiful poem, “The Crickets Have Arthritis”
At 2007’s Words Aloud Festival, Canadian spoken word poet Shane Koyczan performed a poem he wrote called “The Crickets Have Arthritis.” This beautiful poem shares the lessons he learned about illness, love, life and grief from his nine year-old roommate … Continue reading
Finding the Faces of Cancer
The radio show "On the Media" charts the changing conceptualizations of cancer
In a recent two part series, the NPR radio show “On the Media” explored the media constellation that comprises the multi-faceted disease, cancer. The show charts the historical framing of cancer – including the earliest recording of cancer case stories on … Continue reading
Posted in Something Special
Tagged Cancer, March of Dimes, Media, On the Media, Something special, Views of Cancer, War on cancer
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Be Careful with How You Use War Metaphors for Terminally Ill Patients with Cancer
According to language and end-of-life care experts in a recent study, using metaphors, such as “losing your battle” or “battle to be fought,” can have a detrimental effect on the feelings of those dealing with terminal cancer diagnoses
According to an article on U.K.’s The Independent’s website, those with expertise in language and end-of-life care are saying that the standard media practice of describing “cancer as a ‘battle to be fought’ are leading to feelings or failure and … Continue reading
Mortal Darkness
Cancer and mortality emanate as darkness in Scottish artist Ken Currie's "Three Oncologists"
Three faces stare back at you, momentarily caught in the light as they turn into a looming darkness behind a curtain. Three men, clothed in gowns that quickly read medical. The illuminated gowns are covers that protect and contextualize these men as doctors. The … Continue reading
Oliver Sacks Says Terminal Cancer Has Never Made Him Feel More Alive
Neurologist Oliver Sacks wrote an op-ed for the New York Times about embracing life in the face of death
A lot can change in a month, as Oliver Sacks found out recently. The 81-year-old writer and neurology professor went from swimming a mile every day to learning he had terminal, inoperable cancer. He says he’ll be lucky to have … Continue reading
The Conversation by Angelo E. Volandes, M.D.
The Conversation follows Dr. Angelo Volandes' revolutionary insight into what it means to die peacefully
Metastatic lung cancer had wreaked havoc on 78-year-old Taras Skripchenko’s body, yet Dr. Angelo E. Volandes had the impossible task of trying to save his life. The Ukrainian man had worked in coal mines his entire life, which would later … Continue reading
