I bought my children their first gift today, at a little shop in my neighborhood: a menorah, in the shape of Noah’s Ark. It’s painted bright colors, and has detachable animals–giraffes, sheep, elephants, with funny, friendly faces. Made of metal, so virtually indestructable. I’d been eyeing it for several years. It caught my attention, both…
I don’t blog nearly enough. Then, I feel guilty, and I wonder if I should just give it up altogether. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater has never been my style. It’s like with cross fit: so what if I’m the slowest and the weakest in the whole box? Do people actually give up…
It’s been way too long, and I forgot about this blog for a while. Well, I didn’t actually forget; it was a doozy of a semester, both in terms of workload, and also emotionally. More on that in a minute. The other thing is that I’ve come to realize I’m not the most eloquent of…
The longer I stay NED, the more insulated I feel from the reality of cancer. I’m also distanced from the reality of being a survivor, because my every waking moment isn’t consumed with cancer, anymore. I still think about it, at least once a day, but I’m also finishing my 5th semester of school. I’ve…
I’ll have to go back and check the date of my last post. I don’t even remember the last time I updated this blog. I’ve been busy. Being normal. I had scans and blood work around Columbus Day, and not only were my scans clean, but my CA-125 WENT DOWN TO 13.6!!! That’s 8 points…
I had my second ever PET/CT scan, which came back clean, and my ca-125 seems to have leveled out at 20-21. This is all fabulous news, despite the fact that I’m still having pain episodes, and they’ve sort of gotten worse. We are as convinced that it’s scar/nerve pain, as we are stumped as to…
Covers many topics: life, relationships, food, fashion, friends, school, work. Happens everywhere: cafes, living rooms, gardens, museums. Over lunch, over dinner, coffee, tea, wine, or water. Or in the outpatient transplant clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital, over a bag of packed red blood cells. She’s recovering from a stem cell transplant, and it’s a rough…
There’s been a lot of suffering and dying on Planet Cancer, recently. Several friends are struggling with relapses. Somebody had a cord blood transplant (35 years old). Somebody’s in the middle of chemo (late 20’s). Somebody has stage 4 breast cancer with brain mets–(26 years old)–her 3 word text to me was all she could…
I just read a couple of articles about fearless, beautiful, rad women who rock their bald heads. Many are cancer survivors. They experiment. They make statements, fly on planes, go to rock concerts, attend fashion shoots for Vogue, dance professionally, walk the red carpet at the Grammys, start foundations, smile in photographs, blog, wear tight…
Finally, Flowers are showing their faces in Boston! How is the world so full of delicious and beautiful randomness?! Whoopie Pies at the inaugural Copely Square Farmers Market of the season
There’s a public restroom, in the waiting area of the Outpatient Chemo Clinic at Mercy. There are several bathrooms in the back treatment area as well, available for patient use when we are there. They’re definitely more sterile and sanitary, than the one that anybody from off the street can use. Often times though, one…
Woo Hoo! I spoke to the head nurse at Mercy today, and my ca125 which was drawn last week, is 20–a full point lower than it was last month!! It’s the first downward movement in almost a year, and it’s great news! I expected it to have gone up, considering what a big pain episode…
During the last week of April, I: 1. Saw my ex again. 2. Had the worst pain episode ever. I could barely walk or stand up straight. I was nauseated.Aleve wasn’t touching it. It was right before I was scheduled to leave for NYC, and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to go.…
I was angry in that last blog post. I feel better now. I saw my ex-boyfriend yesterday, which I don’t think helped. Things are the way they need to be with him, but it’s sad, regardless. I wore jeans two days in a row: yesterday and the day before. Each of those days, I popped…
Everyone is falling all over themselves, congratulating her for her flowery talk of prophylactic oophorectomies and preventing cancer. Basically, she’s a fucking saint, and I’m a terrible person. I’m just going to say it: Fuck Angelina Jolie: mother of 7, married to Brad Pitt, movie star. No longer in a position where she needs to…
The New Girl 