“So what are you doing to distract yourself and stimulate your mind?” asked a friend on a recent Zoom call. My reply was “well, I’m rereading some classic cancer books.” Feel free to judge my mental health harshly, but it’s working for me. I’ve finished Audre Lorde’s Cancer Journals and Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor. …
Continue reading “27 Dec Cancer Crawl: old cancer books: Susan Sontag Illness as Metaphor”
Last Friday and this Monday we had hour-long calls about my brain mets. Friday we spoke with my Montreal oncologist, and Monday with a radiation oncologist at Mass General. The plan for now is to do nothing and see what the next scan shows. If things are stable, we wait for the next scan, and …
Continue reading “26 Dec 2024 Cancer Crawl: Smol Mets; a few achievements to note”
When I posted on Tuesday I did not think it was a good news / bad news situation, but here we are. Yesterday the MRI results came back and there is cancer in my brain. The nodules are small, so I am not in any immediate danger. And as far as I know, I am …
Tl;dr we got some good news, and we are waiting for a little more. This morning we awoke before dawn to get to the Mass General for an 8:30 appointment–first bloods, then nurse practitioner, then oncologist. (There’s probably a whole post in how I am now very slow in the morning compared to my former …
Yesterday kind of went to shit. I had two cyclical vomiting episodes. I’m still not an expert in how to handle these but I tried two different strategies. The evening one, of hitting with Ativan and Zofran more or less right away, seems to slow it down pretty quickly. I then followed up with a …
Continue reading “Cancer Crawl 16 December: Yesterday did not go as planned; extended technique”
Thursday was the big medical day this week. I had an MRI of my brain at Mass Eye and Ear, and then went over to Mass General to have my right lung drained. The MRI was uneventful but I always forget how incredibly LOUD the MRI machine is when I stick my head in it. …
Continue reading “Cancer Crawl 14 December 2024: 1.6 litres; protein and cheese news; the wait”
The last level of the video game looks like this: I confess that laundry has been the toughest challenge on my independence goals list. Everything else got figured out pretty fast. As this image shows, the laundry in my rental is crammed in a corner of the bathroom, between two doors, making it even tighter. …
Continue reading “Cancer Crawl 7 December 2024: (not really) Final Boss; rock star says ‘kittens’”
