The physicians and other health professionals included me in the process of making medical and other plans. I felt I was not just a patient taking orders from a health care provider on high but a respected part of the health care team.

As a social worker, social advocate, and teacher, making a contribution to the well-being of others has been my full-time job and given meaning to my life. Having to focus primarily on my own recovery felt like a loss of meaning.

I have always loved my doctors, and I regard general anesthesia as a chance for the kind of deep sleep that I don't often get. At the time of my last surgery (nothing big), I thought of several tips that can help anyone who is admitted to the hospital for a medical procedure.

At that moment, I felt like a freak. As I stared in the mirror, I felt my eyes begin to water. I felt disfigured and ashamed. But I cut the pity party short. I had survived a life-threatening experience, and these were the scars I had to show for it. I needed to move on.

I'm still absorbing the impact and distilling the multitude of details that became the focus of last year. I'm still growing my eyelashes back (nature is funny like that), and there are a couple of fun-filled appointments with my plastic surgeon in the near future.

A hospital in Germany is being sued for medical malpractice after surgeons allegedly left more than a dozen medical odds and ends inside a cancer pati...

So here I am, waiting for the arthroscopy that will cut away the torn meniscus of my other knee and advance me toward premature arthritis. I should have seen that beyond the end of the long jump sand pit, but I didn't. I am using this week of waiting to reflect upon my changed condition.

Cancer isn't one disease, and there isn't one cure. The menu of treatment options includes drugs (chemotherapy), surgery, and radiation; they are often used together or one after another.