Hi, I’m Allison.
In 2019, at age 45, I was diagnosed with de novo metastatic breast cancer. I started treatment that December and learned very quickly that my new life would run on a three-week schedule.
Treatment. Recover. Repeat.
Then do it all over again.
Seven years later, I’m still here—and still getting treatment every three weeks.
I originally started blogging privately when I was first diagnosed. I wrote about chemo, losing my hair, scans, side effucks, fear, insurance nightmares and all the weird things nobody prepares you for when cancer becomes part of your life.
But when I recently went back and read those old posts, I noticed something.
Eventually, cancer stopped taking up every paragraph.
There were posts about going back to school. Therapy. Travel. Friends. French fries. Hello Kitty. Concerts. Basketball. Bald eagles. Work. Mental health. Finding community. And figuring out how to keep making plans when you don’t know what the future looks like.
That’s really what Every Three Weeks is about.
It’s not a blog about “beating” cancer or being positive all the time. It’s about living with metastatic breast cancer while still being a whole person.
These days, I’m also a patient advocate and mentor, with a particular interest in quality of life and what it means to live with metastatic breast cancer. I love learning about cancer research, connecting with the MBC community, and using my voice to help bring the patient perspective into conversations about cancer care.
But cancer isn’t my entire personality.
I love traveling—especially to Hawaii. I’m a recovering perfectionist, an unapologetic very adult sized Hello Kitty lover, a French fry enthusiast, a believer in therapy and boundaries, and apparently someone who can become emotionally invested in just about anything from a bald eagle nest to a Tan Hua flower blooming in the middle of the night.
I also believe joy and grief can exist at the same time.
So can fear and hope.
You can be grateful to be alive and still be pissed off about what cancer has taken from you.
You can have metastatic cancer and still have a life worth talking about.
This is mine.
Life between infusions.
— Allison
Want to get in touch?
You can reach me at allison@everythreeweeks.com
