Dr. Chaya Rao Venkat, wife, mother, daughter, scientist, and patient advocate, passed away on September 20th, 2023, at her home in Rancho Mirage, California. The cause of death was heart disease. She was 74 years old.

Mental health is a topic that should be at the forefront of the conversation.

That is the title of a recent article in the European Journal of Cancer Care.  Sounds like something you may recognize?  Read on.  You are not going crazy, you are not  the only one feeling frustrated.

Does humor have a role when dealing with messy, frustrating and to-date incurable cancers like CLL?  I think so, but obviously not everyone agrees.  What say you?

There are not that many good articles dealing with quality of life issues for cancer patients.  There are no studies at all, when it comes to QOL for caregivers. Are there any options besides the usual anti-depressants?  If these new clinical trial work as well as expected, we may have some truly out of this world  therapeutic choices in dealing with depression.

We each grieve in our own way.  Coping with CLL is also learning how to cope with grief – grief at loss of robust good health once taken for granted, loss of unlimited time and wide open possibilities, and for some of us, the ultimate loss of a special some one that is / was our compass in this world. Here is one CLL spouse’s experience coping with grief.