my response to "dear 16 year old me" skin cancer video

A friend sent me a text this weekend: "Posted a link to a touching melanoma video on Facebook. Sure you've seen it already, but obviously made me think of you." The video, called Dear 16 Year Old Me shows real people, not actors, giving advice to their teenage selves. Some are malignant melanoma patients, while others lost loved ones to skin cancer. I hadn't seen it, so I watched.

As a two-time malignant melanoma survivor, I cried...okay, who are we kidding, there were huge, heaving blubbering-like-a-baby sobs as I ugly cried my way through it. One year ago today this week I had surgery to remove my second occurrence of skin cancer.



Inspired by the video, I wrote a letter to the 16 year old me. Here it is.

Dear 16 Year Old Me,

You're going to get malignant melanoma -- twice -- once in 1999 at the young age of 24 and again in 2010 when you're 35. As a light-skinned redhead, it was pretty much inevitable, even though you wear gobs of sunblock.

on how to be true to yourself

On Sunday, I gave my first TEDx talk, at TEDxYouth@BommerCanyon in Irvine, Calif. It coincided with International Children's Day, and I spoke about watching the final space shuttle launch and my battles with cancer.

The organizer asked each of the speakers for an inspirational quote to print in the program next to our picture and bio.While there were many who put Einstein, Maya Angelou, and the famous Anonymous, I went with Joss Whedon:

Word.

the importance of hope: bewise & san diego science alliance welcome oncofertility survivor

A few weeks ago I spoke at the University of California San Diego Health Sciences and San Diego Science Alliance BE WiSE Education Program of the Oncofertility Consortium. Yes, that's a mouthful. In a nutshell, it's a highly competitive summer program for girls in 7th - 12th grade who are interested in science and engineering.

Dr. Hope introduced me to the woman who runs the program back in March, suggesting I may be a good fit to speak to the girls. A couple of emails back and forth, and we set a date for July.

In talking to the director and Dr. Igloo Cooler, we decided the most appropriate way for me to talk to them would be to simply tell my journey over the course of however long it took me to tell it. I dug right in and built a 147-slide, colorful, fully animated PowerPoint deck, complete with pictures of my insides and other anatomically correct stick figures.

Not.

the patient side of cancer and ivf: video shoot for ucsd medical students

Photo credit: Wet Paint.

I recently sat down with Charles Goldberg at UCSD Medical School to create a video as part of a new curriculum for first year medical students, who many times read about case studies only on paper.

By taping me telling my story, Goldberg hopes to put a face to the patient at a critical point in these young student's learning: "I’d like...to further bring to life and highlight the patient’s perspective on IVF."

The plan was to humanize the whole experience and make students aware of the physical, emotional, and financial costs. He's done similar videos for other cases, and they've "had a very powerful effect."

Though I've told the story dozens of times, sitting in their intimate studio, with the 3,000 watt heat of the lamps on me, was different. Goldberg had provided the questions ahead of time, so I had a good idea of what I was getting into.

I now know how folks feel during the confessional portion of those reality shows, where they talk to the camera and (in their case pretend) pour their hearts out.

CafePress Steals Money From Cancer Patient

Caught your attention? Good. Did CafePress literally steal money from me? Perhaps not. But the story shows how they didn't give me the money they owed me, either.

Back in December 2010, I was diagnosed with cancer for the second time in the same year (yes, 2010 was just all kinds of wonderful). At the time, my attitude toward was understandably "F*ck Cancer." I decided to make a t-shirt on CafePress.com, and planned to split the (albiet minimal) proceeds between my medical bills and a charity.

Unfortunately, I've never seen a penny of the profits. Due to the poor user experience (UX), I managed to create a t-shirt (yay!), but since I didn't create it where their back end web widgets wanted me to, I don't get commission on any of the sales (boo!).