Dateline: Albany Medical Center Imaging Center One of the hard parts of this is how little certainty there is, at all levels big and small.  The most obvious uncertainty is about how many more years I get and how I will get to live them.  Then there’s the more immediate: after a consultation with Judy […]

That’s what my surgeon said to me Tuesday afternoon as I got myself comfortable on the operating table at Albany Med’s somewhat sketchy-seeming “South Clinical Campus.” “Ready to be deported?” It took me a second. She was about the take out my port. I was ready. It was truly weird to be fully conscious and […]

I’m done. With the whole slash/poison/burn series of treatments for this summer’s breast cancer, at least.  Today was my last zap. We keep getting asked “So now how do they know if it worked?” or “Test results coming back okay?” and we keep explaining that they–we–don’t know.  That there are no test results.  That all […]

I have been following the story of an NPR reporter who has cancer (he has a blog).  I found this posting of his pretty on-target.

That’s because when it comes to cancer, hair is the marker of sickness and wellness.

…I am still here. Radiation every weekday 25 minutes away is a good excuse for not doing much else on the cancer-patient front. But I have done some else: a visit to the gynecologic oncologist to talk about ovaries, follow-up with the surgeon, a date to go back to the OR to get my port […]

…and I am finding myself a little annoyed at how my head is turning this funny dark color.

I’m four treatments into radiation, which is daily, at 10:30 AM at Berkshire Medical Center. On the efficient days, I walk in, say hi to the techs, change, go into the zapper room and lie down, they position me, they put in the beam-benders and beam-blockers and leave the room and zap me. Then return, […]

Okay, okay, so I’ve been trying to pretend life is it’s old boring self and haven’t had any blog-worthy thoughts in a while. Here’s something I didn’t ever relate, though: during my second chemo treatment, Eric led me through a visualization of the chemo drugs as light filling my body and shining all through it. […]