Kelley Skoloda

CEO of KS Consulting & Capital, author, and cancer survivor, Kelley Skoloda, talks with us about her memoir, A Way Back to Health: 12 Lessons from a Cancer Survivor. A few years ago, Skoloda received a shocking diagnosis after her first routine colonoscopy, where doctors found a polyp that turned out to be cancerous. She said, “I was kind of thrown into this whirlwind of surgery, cancer treatment, chemo. A world that you read about when you hear all of the statistics of how many people it affects, but had never come that close to it personally.” After she went through surgery, she decided that she needed to let people know her story and tell them what she was going through. She learned that sharing her story and experiences motivated people to go and take care of their own health, so she put out a call for others to share their cancer survival stories and many responded wanting to explain how they handled some of these tough issues. This helped formulate her idea for her memoir, which she structured with each chapter as a major category of learning that she acquired as she was going through her journey.

Beginning with the first chapter, Skoloda writes about learning to trust your instincts, a prominent theme that runs throughout her book. In the memoir, she also delves into her other lessons such as doing your own research, preparing to speak up, knowing your medical history, getting ready for treatment, opening yourself up to kindness, and watching for miracles. For her, the miracles came in her life as butterflies. She started seeing them in the oddest places and they became a sign of hope for her to look out for and appreciate other everyday miracles.

Her final thoughts for those going through a health crisis is to be an advocate for your own health and try to be an active member of your medical team. In addition, don’t be afraid to get a second opinion. She said, “…second opinions often do change the course of what the treatment is, and oftentimes for the better so I think there is a real outcome based reason to do it, and I also just think it has to be the right fit for you. Trust your instincts, if there is something nagging at you that it just doesn’t feel right, then it’s not. Then there are other options out there. Don’t assume that people will be offended and if they are then maybe that’s not the right fit anyway.”