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Before You Buy Oysters, Flip the Bag Over Once - Look for the Words "For Cooking Only"
A "for cooking only" label on supermarket oysters is a warning that they may carry norovirus, which can be dangerous for patients whose immunity is lowered by chemotherapy or surgery. If you do want to eat them, cook them all the way through at over 95C (203F) for more than a minute.
My pre-existing-condition insurance premium came out high — did I make a good call?
When a past surgery or a hospital stay for testing pushes your pre-existing-condition insurance premium up, it's worth checking whether a stay that was only for tests got logged as if it were a medical history — and then asking for a review or appeal. The bottom line: look at what's actually covered, not just the price tag.
Filing an Insurance Claim After a Cancer Diagnosis: The Things That Trip You Up
After being diagnosed with a hard-to-classify cancer like a neuroendocrine tumor, there are a few things you really need to check before claiming your benefits — the disease classification code, filing separately with each company, disclosure issues, and waiting periods. Here is a calm, step-by-step rundown.
Chicken-Feet Bone Soup During Chemo: Who Benefits and Who Should Hold Back
Chicken-feet bone soup (dakbal-gomtang) can prop up a meal when appetite and energy are gone, but it is not a treatment food that pulls a low neutrophil count back up. Anyone with bile-duct, gallbladder, or pancreatic trouble, or who struggles to digest fat, should skim off the grease, start with a spoonful or two, and watch how their body answers.
Switched to oral chemo like Votrient (pazopanib)? Here's how nursing-hospital cancer benefits work
A plain-language guide for anyone worried about whether nursing-hospital cancer hospitalization benefits still pay out after switching to an oral chemo drug like Votrient. What matters isn't the type of drug but whether the admission was genuinely necessary, plus the exact wording of your policy, so check with your insurer and doctor in advance.
I Decided to Look After Myself First — After Handing in My Resignation
The story of someone who only began caring for herself once she had handed in her resignation. She draws comfort from the smallest scenes — gardenias on the windowsill, a sudden downpour, a line of ducks waddling along the path — and resolves to spend her days being good to herself for once, instead of everyone else.
Diagnosed With a Brain Aneurysm: Do You Need a Big Hospital, and Is It Coiling or Open Surgery?
After a brain aneurysm diagnosis, the two questions people wrestle with most are where to get treated and whether to choose open surgery (clipping) or coil embolization. We break it down by size, location, shape, age, and overall health. In the end, the key is to decide together with the medical team that has actually looked at your images.
Another insurer wants to see other companies' payout records — do I really have to hand them over?
After a cancer diagnosis, a third insurer asked for the payout records from other companies. Here's how to respond. The key points: what underwriting actually needs is your medical diagnostic evidence, not how much another insurer paid you — and you should get every request and every reason for delay in writing.
When Your Insurer Asks You to "Agree to Public MyData" — Is It Safe to Tap Yes?
When you file an insurance claim, the "Public MyData consent" your insurer asks for is a convenience option, not a requirement. Just check exactly what it shares and how far it reaches — and if it leaves you uneasy, you can still submit paper documents the old way.
Are There Targeted Therapies for Pancreatic Cancer? A Guide for Caregivers
For some pancreatic cancer patients, such as those with a BRCA mutation, targeted therapy or maintenance treatment may be an option. A caregiver-focused guide encouraging you to discuss genetic testing with your oncologist.
A long-overdue hello - the days spent at the side of late-stage cancer
A caregiver's check-in from beside a late-stage cancer patient. An emergency room visit over blood in the urine, the worry around switching anticoagulant medication, and the small comforts of daily life, told plainly and honestly.
Told you have melanoma but don't need chemo yet? Here's how to make sense of it
When rectal or anal melanoma turns up by chance and the doctor says "there's no spread, so we won't start chemo right now," what does that actually mean? Here's a patient-side look at how to handle follow-up monitoring and choosing the right department.