Marla Schreffler

I am a school psychologist. Through my long career I have engaged in providing therapeutic supports for children and adults. I had never sought supportive therapeutic intervention (with the exclusion of mandatory sessions that were necessitated by my doctoral clinical program). There comes a time when you recognize the need for this support. I was told, by my oncologist, that these services were available at Mass General. What, unpleasantly, surprised me was that the social worker thought it...

During the first few cycles of chemo, I had some unexpected experiences. In this blog, I want to offer a few tips. My book covers other unexpected occurrences that transpired after my eight cycles of chemo. By this point in my treatment I already had many blood tests. When I think back to my anxiety about having to have blood work, long before my diagnosis, it is so ironic how this did not impact me , anxiety-wise. However, because of having to have many blood tests, you get to know which...

I accepted this diagnosis. But I was stuck. Such a roller coaster of thoughts and emotions: fear--sadness- anger- anxiety--irritability. I needed to set realistic expectations of the medical path ahead of me. So many questions: How bad was the chemo going to be? What side effects could I expect? Did I have the stamina to be able to get through eight cycles of chemo? So many unknowns. I started to take small but important steps to manage my situation. One of the first things I did was to...