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Standing Up
Fifteen years ago, I was hard at work at Legacy.com. Dennis and I were empty-nesters. Mom was doing well in Florida and we had traveled to Washington D.C. to watch our son Will graduate from college. 15 years ago, was also the first televised “Stand Up to Cancer” fund-raiser. The what? I’ll admit it, It’s…
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A New Me
On the morning I was scheduled for my appointment, I woke to loud thunder and lightning. I got up and walked in the dark through the living room and stood in front of the glass sliding door to watch. Interestingly, there was no rain. I love thunderstorms, so I stuck around for a few minutes…
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Saving Lissa
Last week, I was digging through a stack of aging, faded newspaper articles I wrote as a free-lancer back in the late 1990’s, hoping to find a particular story I thought might be a good fit for the blog. Suddenly, I landed on a clipping which I didn’t write. It had been snail-mailed to me…
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A Tale of Two Journeys
This is not a story about my hair; but it starts there. It had been eight months since my last chemotherapy session and my short hair was as curly as Little Orphan Annie though the color was far different. This phenomenon, often referred to as chemo curl, is common post-treatment because the chemicals damage the…
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Inside the C Folder -Things I’ve Learned
December 9th 2019. January 22, 2020. March 4, 2020. I remember these dates because they were all “action” days in my treatment plan for cancer. Blood draws every Tuesday. Radiation starting March 29. A stat scan and kidney flush over Memorial Day weekend. I suspect all this took root along my memory banks because of the…
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A Candid Conversation With My Cancer Caregiver Husband
I had my sixth and final scheduled round of chemotherapy for uterine cancer almost two weeks ago. Treatment is never a straight path and mine was no exception. Over the past several months, I have chronicled those experiences, but I realized that I had missed something. In fact, I had missed an entire side of…
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A Story on Elevator Etiquette 2020
My nurse removes the needle from my port and I gather my things to leave the infusion suite. Thankfully, it was only saline solution today. I am prepping my kidneys for a return to chemotherapy next week. As I head to the elevator, I notice that there are three women waiting. They are the same…
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The Wait
A friend emailed me a few days ago. With everything happening in the world right now, she was both mad and worried that I had to be in the middle of cancer treatments at the same time. She said that she couldn’t imagine anything worse than going through chemo and radiation while a deadly virus…
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My Cancer Treatments: Holding On
(This week’s post is part of my side series covering my cancer treatments.) On the third day after my third round of chemo, I pulled out my computer to attempt to write. (I’m a pretty determined girl.) And I sat there. I tried again the next day. Nothing. Granted, the chemo had successfully snuffed out…
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Infusing Hope
When I arrived for my first chemotherapy treatment, my pulse was 121. It probably went higher as I waited for my doctor to review my bloodwork. Soon, I was heading upstairs to the infusion suite. I walked into a room where I saw maybe 25 seafoam green reclining chairs with IV poles standing silently by,…
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