Flashback #10: A 2 Step Easy Smoky Eye

easy smoky eye

To celebrate our 2-year anniversary of being a nonprofit, Lacuna Loft is bringing back our top 31 articles from our archives!  The countdown to our top post is continuing today with Flashback #10: A 2 Step Easy Smoky Eye, written by Mallory. These 31 articles are the best of the best and we’re very happy to share them with you again!  The countdown continues tomorrow!

….Don’t you just love a makeup tip that only involves two items, is super easy, and results in a great look?!  (Me too!)  For a young adult cancer survivor, sometimes it is hard to feel like yourself.  I found that when I took care getting myself ready in the morning, I looked better…and felt better.  Sometimes that little bit of eye makeup can really help to brighten up your face, helping you to look more like yourself..…

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Flashback #11: How To Create Natural Brows During Hair Loss

eyebrows after cancer

To celebrate our 2-year anniversary of being a nonprofit, Lacuna Loft is bringing back our top 31 articles from our archives!  The countdown to our top post is continuing today with Flashback #11: How To Create Natural Brows During Hair Loss, written by Anna. These 31 articles are the best of the best and we’re very happy to share them with you again!  The countdown continues tomorrow!

….Hair loss can be devastating and it is an unfortunate side effect of most chemotherapy cocktails. Luckily, there are wigs, head scarfs, and hats if you don’t feel comfortable rocking your bald head. You may become surprisingly comfortable with the bald head look like I did.  Losing your eyebrows, on the other hand, can be a bit more challenging. I felt like I looked like ET — bald and brow-less. Don’t despair!!! There are wonderful products that can be used to create natural looking brows, even when you only have a few lonesome brow hairs left. Due to sparse brows and over plucking as a teen, I have been filling in my brows for years and I have learned a lot along the way. I hope you find the products and suggestions below helpful. I have also provided some links to my favorite YouTube brow gurus.…

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Flashback #12: An Easy DIY T-Shirt ReMake!

tshirt remake

To celebrate our 2-year anniversary of being a nonprofit, Lacuna Loft is bringing back our top 31 articles from our archives!  The countdown to our top post is continuing today with Flashback #12: An Easy DIY T-Shirt ReMake!, written by Mallory. These 31 articles are the best of the best and we’re very happy to share them with you again!  The countdown continues next week!

….You know how it is so nice to slip on some comfy clothes at the end of the day…or to have comfy clothes on all day when you’re not feeling well?  T-shirts always seem to be a great go-to for just this comfy purpose.  But then, someone comes over unexpectedly and all of a sudden you’re caught wearing clothes that make you look even worse than you feel!  I usually don’t wear t-shirts for just this reason…they definitely give me a rumpled and baggy appearance.  Here is the solution!  Take that over-sized favorite t-shirt of yours and resize it!…

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Flashback #13: Being At CancerCon

cancercon

To celebrate our 2-year anniversary of being a nonprofit, Lacuna Loft is bringing back our top 31 articles from our archives!  The countdown to our top post is continuing today with Flashback #13: Being At CancerCon, written by Mallory. These 31 articles are the best of the best and we’re very happy to share them with you again!  The countdown continues tomorrow!

….When I arrived to my first activity, the run/walk scheduled for Friday morning, I was nervous, toting my registration bag of swag, and feeling silly to be at a semi-professional event (since I was representing not only myself but Lacuna Loft) in multi-colored knee length tights and a running shirt.  I stayed off to the side and just watched for a few minutes as groups of people, who seemed to have known each other for years, congregated and visited in the downstairs lobby of the hotel.  Then, someone walked up and just started talking to me.  He was friendly, but not so overly friendly that I immediately worried about what cult I was joining, and very welcoming.  During the run/walk I was supposed to be having a walking meeting with someone so I kept an eye on her while I kept talking to my new friend.  Once the group started making its way out the door, my walking-meeting partner yelled out for me, and I quickly joined her.  From there started an epic couple of days.  The first timer welcome and orientation involved a rock-paper-scissors tournament where, once you lost a round of the game you turned into a cheering section for the person you had just lost to.  Eventually, the whole room was divided into two, yelling and cheering masses, each supporting their own rock-paper-scissors champion.  Over the course of the week, I kept running into people and saying, “oh yea, hey!  I played you in rock-paper-scissors!”…

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Flashback #14: Breaking the Stereotype of Cancer Survival

stereotype of the cancer survivor

To celebrate our 2-year anniversary of being a nonprofit, Lacuna Loft is bringing back our top 31 articles from our archives!  This is Flashback #14: Breaking the Stereotype of Cancer Survival, written by Nikhil. These 31 articles are the best of the best and we’re very happy to share them with you again!  The countdown continues tomorrow!

….People always tell me I’m “brave” for being so happy and positive through my journey.  They admire how I’ve adapted and grown through my experience, to be this guy who could logic his way through any challenge.  Sure, I may often end up, or come off as happy, positive and cheery in the face of adversity, but that’s not ALWAYS how I truly feel.  I may have “won” my battle with cancer but I certainly don’t always feel like a winner.

In reality, the ugly, not-too-well-known truth about cancer is that it affects you long after its left your body.  The physical fatigue, maintenance treatments, and weariness are just the tip of the iceberg.  The emotional drainage of facing your mortality, sometimes multiple times, often for years after treatment “ends”… the frustration of an all-too-slow recovery and the realization that you may never be your old self again, all of this plagues many cancer patients long after their last treatment is over.  Not to mention the medical bills…

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Flashback #15: The Challenges of Surviving Cancer

surviving young adult cancer

To celebrate our 2-year anniversary of being a nonprofit, Lacuna Loft is bringing back our top 31 articles from our archives!  This is Flashback #15: The Challenges of Surviving Cancer, written by Heather. These 31 articles are the best of the best and we’re very happy to share them with you again!  The countdown continues tomorrow!

….I finished my last radiation treatment on a Friday, in mid-November, almost a year to the date after my diagnosis. When I walked out of the room, the nurses were there with a little “Certificate of Completion.” I thanked them, said I hoped to never see them again. It was a lame attempt at a joke, but I meant it in all honesty. I never wanted to have to go through that again.

I sat in my car and stared at this silly certificate. Yay for me! I finished all my treatment!! I was officially a survivor. Why did I feel so lost and empty? This is the part of being a survivor that no one tells you about. Sure you hear the advice of “Live every day to the fullest” and “You can really appreciate all you have.” All great things yes, but they gloss over what is really felt.

As I sat in my car in the parking lot of the cancer center I began to cry. I cried out of relief, I cried out of frustration, but mostly I cried out of grief. Why grief? All I had known for the last year of my life was spending every waking moment aware of my body and the battle that was raging in my cells. I paid close attention every day to the changes in my body to make sure it was doing what it was supposed to and responding to treatment. For the last 30 days, I had spent 2 hours a day at this cancer center getting radiation. THIS was my life, fighting cancer, and now, I was done…

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Flashback #16: Styling Pixie Cut Hair

styling a pixie cut

To celebrate our 2-year anniversary of being a nonprofit, Lacuna Loft is bringing back our top 31 articles from our archives!  This is Flashback #16: Styling Pixie Cut Hair, written by Mallory. These 31 articles are the best of the best and we’re very happy to share them with you again!  The countdown continues next week!

….My sister-in-law is getting married this weekend!  With my short hair, I was worried that my options for wedding worthy style were limited…boy was I wrong!  There are SO MANY different ways to style pixies and quite a few video tutorials to help you along the way.  Whether short hair is your jam, or you’re growing your hair out after chemo treatments…you definitely have more than a few ways to style your pixie cut!…

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Flashback #17: 8 Years Of No Good Cancer

no good cancer

To celebrate our 2-year anniversary of being a nonprofit, Lacuna Loft is bringing back our top 31 articles from our archives!  This is Flashback #17: 8 Years Of No Good Cancer, written by Michele. These 31 articles are the best of the best and we’re very happy to share them with you again!  The countdown continues tomorrow!

….It’s been eight years since I put on the necklace, eight years since I felt the lump under my skin. And it’s been almost eight years since I first heard those words: “Michele, it looks like you have thyroid cancer.”

It was a Friday afternoon in late November, two months after my wedding and the day before my husband and I were planning to go pick out our Christmas tree. My doctor said those words, and then she made two calls, and just like that, I had appointments with a surgeon to remove my thyroid the day after New Year’s and an endocrinologist to manage my care forevermore after the surgery.

My husband and I drove home in mostly stunned silence, but for my confused questioning: “I thought I was doing everything right. I run. I don’t smoke. I eat blueberries, for god’s sake.” I knew all too well even before that day that cancer doesn’t discriminate, but I still never expected that it would happen to me.

My thyroidectomy was a little more than a month later, but on November 30, 2007, I became a cancer survivor. I felt physically just the same as I had the day before — which is to say, completely fine — but my life had been separated into two distinct periods, one before cancer and one after…

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Flashback #18: Tips For Moving During Young Adult Cancer

tips for moving during young adult cancer

To celebrate our 2-year anniversary of being a nonprofit, Lacuna Loft is bringing back our top 31 articles from our archives!  This is Flashback #18: Tips For Moving During Young Adult Cancer, written by Mallory. These 31 articles are the best of the best and we’re very happy to share them with you again!  The countdown continues tomorrow!

….Moving at any time is a stressful and often fatiguing event…but couple moving with having cancer as a young adult and WOWZA!  Whether you’re in active treatments, just in remission, or your cancer journey is well into its survivorship phase…all of that extra life stress is not to be underestimated when paired with a life event considered as stressful as moving is.

Here are some tips for moving while dealing with young adult cancer…

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Flashback #19: How To Tell Your Kids About Cancer

how to tell kids about cancer

To celebrate our 2-year anniversary of being a nonprofit, Lacuna Loft is bringing back our top 31 articles from our archives!  This is Flashback #19: How To Tell Your Kids About Cancer, written by Jenn. These 31 articles are the best of the best and we’re very happy to share them with you again!  The countdown continues tomorrow!

….I think the worst day of my life was the day my husband and I chose to tell our young boys about my cancer diagnosis. We both knew we had to tell them sooner rather than later. Things move fast in a household turned upside down when cancer barges in. I had already been home from work for a few days, recovering from a biopsy and then meeting my surgeon for the pathology reports and going for the seemingly endless tests that follow…..

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