My personal journal sketchnotes from the last week of knowing that my Aunt V has terminal liver bile duct cancer. Again, hoping that this can help someone else going through a similar thing. To start at the beginning, please visit http://www.jeannelking.com/personal/cancer-sketchnotes-01/ Thanks, Jeannel @jeannelking

1. Sidelines
or “When Life Gives Your Aunt Cancer,
Make Sketchnotes”
Jeannel King
Week Three: “New Day”
October 27 - November 9, 2012
#cancer #sketchnotes @jeannelking

2. Chronology
How long has it taken me to be able to revisit this particular journal? Three months?
As long as was needed, I suppose, to shift ones word tense from present to past.
V. had stage four liver bile duct cancer.
It was an aggressive cancer, and also inoperable.
With chemotherapy, her doctors gave her six months or so to live.
Without chemo, they didn’t expect her to last the year.
When I first learned V. was ill, I looked online for books and resources for family members of
a person facing this type of cancer. What I discovered was that the information out there
was depressing, disheartening, and it didn’t prepare me for what I experienced day-to-day.
So I’m sharing my own personal sketchnote journal here with you, week by week, in the hope
that someone may find it helpful...that someone may realize that they aren’t crazy or the
only one feeling like this as they get to face their own family cancer from the sidelines.
- Jeannel King
P.S. If you haven’t read week one, you can find it here: Week One: “Two Percent”

96. Epilogue
This is where I stopped journaling. I seriously thought about leaving these last three pages of
my journal out. After all, they were a bit of a buzz-kill compared to the more uplifting and
optimistic “broken heart to heart broke open” outlook I was experiencing just the day before.
But if I left those last three pages out, I’d be blowing smoke up your bum.
Because there really is no “happy ending” to this experience per-se. There’s just the next
new day...and the next. Some of those days are really wonderful, and some of them
just flat-out suck. But they do get better over time. They really do.
If I could share with myself then what I know now, this is what I’d say...and I’ll say to you:
Know that this will be the best - and worst - experience of your life. And that’s okay.
Meeting your needs and taking great care of yourself isn’t selfish: it’s mandatory.
The best thing you can do is not the planning, the chasing, the fixing, or even the research.
The best thing you can do is to simply be Present when you are with the ones you love.
Because at the end of the day, those experiences are what you’ll treasure the most.

97. Thank you for reading this.
If you know someone who might find this helpful,
please click “Share” on SlideShare or
feel free to send them this link:
http://www.jeannelking.com/personal/cancer-sketchnotes-03/
...and to start from the beginning, visit this link:
http://www.jeannelking.com/personal/cancer-sketchnotes-01/
- Jeannel