We are almost to the solstice and for most of December so far I have felt somewhat unmoored. It’s been hard to focus on what I think of as “work,” though holiday projects are giving me a good excuse this week at least. I have had lots of unscheduled time and have managed to feel, […]
Author: ekhb
The zap plan so far
Met with the radiation oncologist this afternoon, after chemo yesterday and IV Vitamin C and acupuncture this morning. This week I’ve felt less icky than usual; maybe that extra week off for Thanksgiving really made a difference. So the radiation oncologist said first of all, he doesn’t think 1 of the 3 spots seen on […]
MRIs
If you don’t get the joke above after thinking about it for a bit, or you have ever just wondered what an MRI sounds like, listen to a bit of this video, which also shows the equipment needed for a brain MRI: Brain MRI sounds & sights (first 50 seconds should do). All metal needs […]
Update with and without varnish
I spent the time between my CT scan and MRI Thursday AM and our meeting with my oncologist Friday AM trying my hardest to think of a descriptive phrase for that time period in ongoing cancer treatment or follow-up, because It’s a Thing. It’s the scan-results interval (SRI?). It’s the DFWP, the dread-filled waiting period. […]
Trying to make sense of lab results (or, what I do for fun)
Thinking about my various lab results (bloodwork done every chemo day), I was wondering if there were patterns between Week 1 and Week 2 that I wasn’t seeing, or patterns that would explain the bouncing of my red blood cell count. It didn’t seem predictable at all, though I would have predicted something like: best […]
I have lost track of what round of chemo this is!
And not because of chemo-brain…just because there have been so many of them. Which is a good thing–the chemo (2 weeks on, 1 week off, since January) has been keeping the cancer from growing. I get scanned on the 19th to find out (on the 21st) if it continues to work. A good result on […]
Pictures are more fun than politics (more in the weird hair series)
Me and a porch post. More curls than I have ever had in my life. (But I’ll take it.) Photo by Jesse.
Improving end-of-life care with some good questions
Recently in the New York Times Atul Gawande wrote about end-of-life care and helping people make the most of the time they have left. Makes sense to me. Let’s hope the four questions he describes can be a general Rx for doctors everywhere.
One last suggestion for National Breast Cancer Industry Month
If this issue speaks to you at all, go to Breast Cancer Action, learn a bit more about current pink-ribbon madness, and add your name to their letter-writing campaign: all here.
October is upon us. Think before you pink.
Below are various quotes from the essay “Welcome to Cancerland” by Barbara Ehrenreich to get us ready for “National Breast Cancer Industry Month.” (Thanks for the link, Dorian!) This was written in 2001, but not much has changed. Before being guilted into buying pink things, or things with pink ribbons on them (like yogurt), consider […]