Skip to main content

All About Ellen


Ellen is a single mother of three wondrous kids. At the age of 39, two weeks after the birth of her third child, she was diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma of the left breast with axillary metastasis. She spent a very full year of parental leave undergoing chemotherapy, mastectomy with axillary node dissection, and radiation therapy, followed by a decade of endocrine therapy. Her favourite past times include:

(1) doting over her children
(2) blasting unknowing bloggers with puns, and
(3) kicking cancer to the curb, then swiftly backing over it with a dump truck 

This blog initially chronicled her experience in being diagnosed and treated for Stage 3 breast cancer immediately following child birth in 2012, or as she liked to refer to it, from kegels to chemo and beyond. Chapter two began in 2024 and explores her insights and experience living with metastatic breast cancer.

Popular posts from this blog

Keeping Abreast of Ellen: The One with the Sequel

To quote Lady Whistledown, and because I feel strongly that this update (though far from gossip), is worthy of your time and readership, I will lead with: Dear Gentle Reader, Sequels are generally overrated. Mine is no exception. I have been toiling for months over how best and when to communicate this difficult news to you. I settled on today as I am now seven months in, have dusted off my figurative pen, and truly have cause to give thanks.  For those who need me to cut to the chase, here goes: Cancer has come knocking again. In fact it didn't knock, it let itself in through an open window and has taken up residence. Although it's contained to a few adjoining rooms (abdominal lymph nodes, ribs and pelvis), uninvited guests can travel in packs, so my awesome medical team and I are keeping a watchful eye for new squatters.  Those interested in how this story unfolds can  follow my new Facebook Page , Keeping Abreast of Ellen, where I'll soon post updates on key milestones...

A Toast to 2024!

Well hello there, 2025, so wonderful to make your acquaintance! I look forward to experiencing all that you may bring my way and more 😀. But first... While this week's buzz is heavy on the, "out with the old, in with the new," I unapologetically feel that my 2024 needs its proper adieu, so I am going to make space and honour her departure. I hope you will join me as I hop aboard my little metaphorical riverboat for a brief but meaningful séjour down the farewell 2024 riviera. Then we can move on to the champagne-bottle-smashing inauguration of 2025`s brand new cruise ship, complete with shiny shuffleboard decks (not just for old people!), infinity swimming pools (do you have to keep swimming in them forevermore?) and multiplex cinemas (how DOES one watch more than one film at a time....impressive!). I am making all of this stuff up btw, I have never even set foot on a cruise ship. Blame my Epi Friends, they have forever schooled me on the multiple reasons to limit cruise...

The Time is Write

On Sunday I attended a Fireside Teaching and Healing Workshop with Jenny (Sâwanohk) Sutherland. Jenny is the visionary and owner of the Misiwe Ni Relations Healing Lodge , an Indigenous Healer, and a registered psychotherapist. During our workshop she took our small circle of four through a smudging ceremony and a fireside chat on how being in the winter season and especially the stress of December's expectations depletes our energy and increases our anxiety. Sunday's session was all about restoring our energy through the power of connectedness, intention and a guided journey which left me filled with euphoria and peace, not to mention, more energy than I've felt in many moons! Two lasting pieces of wisdom stood out from our morning together: First, we all come from water and we must constantly work to replenish it. This is more than the futile promise I've made to myself all these years, "I really need to drink more water". No, I need to actually DO it, not j...