Nancy Sharp's Caregiving Series

When her husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor at 32, Nancy Sharp suddenly found herself navigating a new role as a cancer caregiver. During her husband’s nearly 7-year battle, Nancy learned to cope and adapt. She shares her story in a blog series that examines insights she gained as a longtime cancer caregiver.

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    Read December 3, 2020

    Writing a New, Resilient Story

    Nancy Sharp concludes her Resilience series with a poignant reflection on what it means to lead a more resilient, optimistic life after losing a loved one to cancer.
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    Read October 20, 2020

    Walking Heals Body and Mind

    “I see a lot of patients and caregivers paralyzed by fear, especially after a tough diagnosis,” Dr. Boxwell said. “It’s easy to become immobilized in these situations, and this is why movement created by walking is so essential. When we move our bodies, we move our minds. In this way, patients and caregivers learn to see different possibilities.”
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    Read September 29, 2020

    The Question of Mortality: It's a Necessary Conversation

    I think it’s the cruelty of it all that has me so upset. Cancer is fierce. Cancer doesn’t discriminate. Cancer kills. This is true: there’s nothing quite like a cancer diagnosis to bring us face to face with mortality.
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    Read September 8, 2020

    The Strength of Surrender

    It would be great if we had some kind of roadmap for these unprecedented times, but this is a once-in-a-century event according to some estimates. No, the pandemic playbook is being written in real time, and, much as the world would like to move on, we are nowhere near done grappling with COVID and its life and death consequences.
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    Read August 31, 2020

    Hope – Pay Attention to the Small, Still Voice Inside

    Merriam-Webster defines hope as follows: 1) to cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true. This feels right to me. For those whose lives have been touched by cancer, hope is longing and acceptance and cautious optimism. Hope is central to resilience because it’s impossible to move past adversity without feeling positive about the future. A resilient mindset requires a hopeful mindset.
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    Read June 5, 2020

    Holding Fear in its Proper Place

    Everywhere you turn people are grappling with fears both real and imagined. There are no easy answers but amid such fraught times we have to find ways to continually challenge our fears. Nancy suggests three simple things to try.
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    Read May 27, 2020

    Perspective Is Everything

    With all the disruption and upheaval in our lives, it’s been a real struggle to feel joyful about welcoming the happy moments this month typically brings. Everyone Nancy knows seems to be riding this rollercoaster: fearful and anxious one day, grateful and calm the next. This is to be expected in the throes of such global uncertainty. Nancy was in a real funk at the start of the month, and a bit conflicted at having to be the face of resilience when she felt anything but resilient. But then two things happened that shifted her perspective.
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    Read May 19, 2020

    The Power of Pause

    Nancy shares a strategy passed on to her from a friend in recovery, of how to pause to take care of ourselves—body, spirit and mind. When we tend to our needs, we have so much more to give to others.
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    Read April 23, 2020

    Staying Strong During Times of Stress and Uncertainty

    After being a caregiver for her husband during his nearly 7-year battle with brain cancer, there’s one thing that Nancy’s learned, It’s to rely on cautious optimism and find ways to adapt and find joy in the face of uncertainty and social isolation.
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    Read April 15, 2020

    Choose the Sun, Not the Surrounding Storm

    This is the first in a series of new columns about resilience, an area Nancy Sharp is passionate about and grew to be an expert in precisely because of her experience as a longtime cancer caregiver. She'll share her philosophy on resilience with you.
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    Read January 17, 2020

    Redefining Home

    Place matters, especially when home must be redefined because the person with whom you made a home is no longer alive.
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    Read January 10, 2020

    Parenting My Grieving Children

    Grief comes in waves, in ebbs and flows, even for three-year old toddlers. That first year without Brett was a pendulum of conversation, reasoning, and tears. But there’s nothing easy or linear about parenting, let alone parenting grieving children. I learned not to expect too much from myself or from them.
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    Read January 3, 2020

    The Reality of Grief

    When at last Brett died, I expected peace, not chaos all over again. I'd buried him prematurely in my dreams throughout his illness, bracing myself, I suppose, for the inevitable. Now that he was truly gone though, I was unprepared for the tidal wave of grief within me. The first few months after Brett died were a blur.
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    Read December 13, 2019

    A Beautiful Death

    The toll of Brett's cancer on his body made home hospice no longer a viable option. After his most recent seizure, he was admitted into hospice. Going into hospice was almost a relief. I lived with premature anticipatory grief for years knowing Brett's cancer was incurable.
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    Read December 6, 2019

    Caregiver's Perspective: Shifting Moments

    Being Brett’s wife and caregiver was a complicated role, and it strained my nerves. It was hard to simply rest my head on his shoulder the way I used to, or to express my own need for emotional intimacy and comfort when the gravity of his illness loomed large. I bounced back quickly from hurt feelings because there was no choice but to be present when we our time together as a family was diminishing. Every moment mattered.
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    Read November 22, 2019

    Out of Options

    Six years into her husband's cancer diagnosis, Nancy Sharp felt cancer's toll on their marriage and children. Like many caregivers, she learned to cope and adapt, even as Brett's brain tumor progressed and treatment options failed.
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    Read November 15, 2019

    Caregiver’s Remorse

    Nancy Sharp was a new mother wanting to go on her first family vacation with her husband and twins, but even that isn't so simple when you're a cancer caregiver.
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    Read October 25, 2019

    Living with Cautious Optimism

    When your loved on is diagnosed with cancer, and life seems to throw you one bad turn after the next, hope can seem elusive. Cautious optimism taught me how to hope again and to navigate the bumps of life which are always more jarring after a cancer diagnosis.
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    Read October 18, 2019

    Caregivers: Don't Go it Alone

    When a loved one is diagnosed with cancer, how do caregivers live? Seeking that elusive answer nearly leveled Nancy Sharp in the early months of her husband Brett’s brain tumor diagnosis.