I'm back! It's been busy but in a good way. Through my own platform, I'm teaching creative writing virtually to kids and teens worldwide. Friday night was Hong Kong and tonight, teens from all over the US. As a children's author and teacher, it's my passion and brings me great joy (integral to the healing process). Kids now more than ever, need to connect with their creative & imaginative selves. www.kellytooman.com As with any new entreprenuial endeavor, it's a lot of work. Learning to pace, not pressure myself, will always be my work in progress. More on that subject later. We never trav ..read more

My breast knew best. She was right all along. In my last blog, I wrote how she caused everyone much confusion. Including myself. The scans weren't conclusive, and I was left to believe that my immunotherapy treatments (Herceptin and Perjeta) weren't working. But they were. Three weeks ago, I had a mastectomy- the only way to determine what was going on. The pathology results were phenomenal! There was less than 1mm of cancer left in the breast. Once again, my body responded beautifully to the treatments (and everything else I was doing). The breast scar tissue was hiding the results. And thus ..read more

And I'm sure she'll want chocolate cake. She's done a fantastic job and this is her celebration. But I still sadly have to let her go. In a few days I'll be having a mastectomy ( I don't use that big, scary word around her). And it was a difficult choice to make. Background Music Please For those of you unfamiliar with my story, in June of 2019 they found stage 3 breast cancer- multiple tumors in my breast and a positive lymph node biopsy from under my right arm. The standard protocol: chemotherapy, immunotherapy (Herceptin and Perjeta), surgery and radiation. I would not be taking that path ..read more

This winter, I found out that I had breast cancer again. At first I felt betrayed. Shocked. Angry. I thought and believed I was done. And I was at that point in time. The choices I made were the exact right ones for me then. I followed my gut and listened to my own truth. I stand by them. I had healed from Stage 3 breast cancer in 6 months. So why? Part of this is the nature of my type of cancer. Maybe it wasn't ever fully gone. Microscopic cells left behind. I'll never know. And even if I had done everything that was suggested, there is no guarantee I wouldn't have been in this place again. O ..read more

My landscape has drastically changed as I write my post this morning. I'm in California for the time being working as a private teacher for a family whose children are doing remote schooling. As we move throughout the school year, the landscapes will continue to change. But for now, this is home. Last month, we stayed in Sag Harbor, Long Island. Nestled away from the suburbs and city life, the nights were well...dark. No lights aside from the few houses on the country road. One of the last evenings there, I happened to finally look skyward. What I saw took my breath away: the most brilliant a ..read more

I always knew my cancer was more than treating my physical symptoms. It came to teach and heal me emotionally. We cannot turn over all our power to physicians. In order to fully heal, we must take responsibility for our own wellness. Our emotions reside in our cells and tissues. Thoughts and feelings impact our health. My body could no longer hold onto emotional pain and the childhood pattern of turning against myself. It had carried the burden too long. For me, emotional issues were the core of my cancer. Carl Simonton M.D., the author of Getting Well Again discusses the "cancer personality ..read more

Food will fight cancer...or feed it. I read something on Instagram post that made me sad. A woman with cancer posted that she ate whatever she wanted. "Life is short!" she happily quipped. All I could think of was that now her life could potentially be far shorter. And yet, it is really her fault? Has anyone told her differently? I was listening to an interview with Liana Warner-Gray and Dr. Sherri Tennpenny. As many of you know, Liana's book, Cancer Free With Food, was an instrumental resource in my health journey. This interview is a wealth of information and an eye-opener to our health sys ..read more

Back in the days when I was a Montessori preschool teacher, we had circle time. Growing up, I am sure you did too. A time of squirming, picking your nose, sharing family news: "My mom didn't wear underwear today," and at some point listening and learning. Being a children's writer, I loved to read picture books aloud. However, I felt pressured to teach them songs. One of my students was a spunky 4 year-old named Marlina. She ruled the roost and never minced words. I'm sure right now she is running a small country. Marlina had the unfortunate pleasure of sitting too close as I sang a song that ..read more

I am truly shaken at the moment. I was just reading about the origins of chemotherapy and learned it was derived from agents used in chemical warfare. Mustard gas, to be specific. In the 1940's Yale University physicians, Louis Goodman and Alfred Gilman, researched the medical records of WW1 soldiers affected by mustard gas.They found that many had a very low number of immune cells in their blood – cells that, if mutated, can go on to develop into leukemia and lymphoma. They surmised that if mustard gas could destroy normal white blood cells, it seemed likely that it could also destroy cancero ..read more

When you find out you have cancer, it's frightening and foggy-like walking in a murky, surreal haze. It's easy to fall into a fearful spin and let others make all our decisions for us. It's important to stop, pause, and quiet ourselves long enough to listen to our instincts... even when they go against what is considered the norm. Our bodies do "speak" to us and they know what they need to heal. Before cancer, I didn't always listen. When told I had stage 3 breast cancer, my sadness quickly turned to anger. And for me, that worked. At that time, wallowing in grief would have depleted my energy ..read more