Jessie Gruman, PhD, Co-Editor-in-Chief of our Journal of Participatory Medicine, underwent surgery today in New York to address the fourth cancer-related diagnosis of her life. Today she released a blog post about it.

Jessie has been a natural choice to co-lead our Journal. She is founder and president of the Center for Advancing Health; as her bio on the journal’s site says, “The Center works to increase patient engagement: people will not benefit from the health care available to them unless they participate fully and competently in it.”

I ask you to read Jessie’s heartfelt post in its entirety, as she inventories her thoughts and feelings. Personally I’m years out from the end of my own treatment, but her open, authentic, articulate expression of her feelings brings back the tears and uncertainty we commonly face when hit with, as she puts it, a devastating diagnosis.

This is real stuff, people. Life goes on, disease hits, we face our situations and make our choices. Care for each other.

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