getting through it

It’s Friday night after chemo on Tuesday. Today I took the exam to be a Lamaze childbirth educator, which was administered in Springfield, MA. My excellent friend Lisa drove me there and back, which was key to making this crazy plan doable. The exam itself was fine–all multiple choice, on a computer, felt like a […]

3rd chemo

Today was my chemo-spa day again. We ran around ahead of time trying to get stuff done, but I did have time to do my mediation practice and have my flax-oil smoothie for breakfast. New York Oncology Hematology was really busy…more busy and behind than we’ve ever seen it. Apparently yesterday was even busier, at […]

life goes on and dysfunction does too

I’m back from Baltimore and it’s the middle of week 3 of my chemo cycle, so I am busily trying to DO STUFF before next Tuesday. There are many things that need doing before the end of the month, and I’m assuming that Tuesday through Saturday or Sunday next week I won’t feel much like […]

my head

At the MANA conference’s closing session I began my career of wandering around bald with no head covering. As we stood in a huge conference-hotel ballroom in a large (250 people?) circle, I was kinda daring myself to take off my bandanna. After a while I said to my friend Wendy, “I could take off […]

off to the MANA conference

Tomorrow I am going to Baltimore for the MANA conference (that’s Midwives Alliance of North America). My hats and bandannas and I will be home Monday night after going to presentations, giving a presentation, going to the Division of Research meeting Monday, and hanging out with my MANA friends throughout, which I greatly look forward […]

Neulasta: $6000 or $75, you pick

After chemo last Tuesday, my awesome nurse Amy suggested we try to call in a prescription for Neulasta and see if my insurance company would cover it that way and give it to me for $50 (my highest drug co-pay). Then my doctor in Chatham could stick me with it on Wednesday and I wouldn’t […]

so how did the chemo go this time?

This time I was absolutely wiped out from Wednesday afternoon to Saturday afternoon. I lay around in bed, reading, napping, nibbling on things to keep the queasiness from flaring up. I couldn’t do much else. Eric kept sending me back to bed, I think, or maybe that was me sending me back there (for once). […]

day 25: Ellen Hair-was-brown

It’s day 4 after chemo #2 and I am queasy and quite tired, and taking it easy (for once). I have been napping and reading and resting. I realized yesterday–remembering that I hadn’t added to the blog since before chemo on Tuesday–that it takes a certain amount of energy to write something that is not […]

end of week three

The past few days have been wonderful, despite my hair coming out gradually. Luckily, we really do have thousands and thousands of hairs on our heads. It doesn’t look like it’s thin yet (except to me). I attended a great birth on Friday, a day when I had lots of energy and no plans I […]

Chemicals Helpfully Eliminating Microscopic Oncologies

Okay, so that’s how I am striving to think about the chemotherapy treatment I am lucky enough to be able to take into my body this morning. But I can’t help niggling over the question of how it ended up chem-o-therapy instead of chem-i-therapy. They’re not chemocals. Books and healer people have been reminding me […]