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Tag Archives: chemotherapy
Progress
There are many ways to chart progress since chemotherapy. One way is this: More regular clothes in the laundry than nightgowns.
Week 18
I had Steve take my photo when I was dressed for my las chemo treatment. Here it is, a bit of a bookend with the photo he took before the first treatment, March 1. Back then the 4th of July … Continue reading
Thursdays
Up until Memorial Day, my chemotherapy treatments were on Tuesdays and Thursdays were my worst days in terms of recovery. I called them my “down days.” I meant that I was down on the couch, not that I was feeling … Continue reading
Oncology
I’ve been thinking about oncologists lately. I think it’s hard for most of us to imagine a “call” to oncology, or choosing oncology as a specialty, if we ever think about becoming doctors at all. So much bad news to … Continue reading
Posted in art, cancer
Tagged cancer treatment, chemotherapy, Hubble telescope, images of space, oncology, space
1 Comment
Chemo Buddies
I remember the first treatment, when I had expected to be sitting in a big room or rows of chairs getting chemo with a bunch of patients, and it turned out we each had our own room, thinking: “How am I … Continue reading
Posted in cancer
Tagged cancer relationships, cancer treatment, chemotherapy, ovarian cancer
1 Comment
May
Last week was a long week. I have had a relatively easy time in terms of side effects, but for about three weeks the fatigue that set in was very difficult to work around. It turns out it was due … Continue reading
The Mental Game
Cancer and chemotherapy are as much a mental game as a physical one. That might be stating the obvious. To me, though, it’s been endlessly revealing. There is the mental game of: “How did I get this? and Could we … Continue reading
Posted in cancer
Tagged attitude, chemotherapy, fighting cancer, mental game of cancer, ovarian cancer, ovarian cancer treatment
9 Comments
Groceries
Today was the first day I walked the world as a cancer patient. For me, the hair has been gone for a week and I’ve been to work and the post office and even the coffee shop, and I haven’t … Continue reading
Freeze and Thaw
It’s maple syrup season here in Central Minnesota. The monks at Saint John’s Abbey have a very large operation, and it’s been a good year. The first year I lived here, I participated actively in the operation, tapping trees, harvesting … Continue reading
Posted in art, cancer, poetry, writing
Tagged cancer poetry, chemotherapy, Contagious Hospital, maple syrup, poetry, Spring and All, syrup making, T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams
1 Comment
Talismans
It’s certainly human nature, when much is out of one’s control, to become superstitious. Facing cancer, I’m surprised and also not surprised by my level of superstition– or maybe closer to what Joan Didion calls “magical thinking.” For example, a … Continue reading