About 30% of people diagnosed with breast cancer at any stage will develop distal metastasis. I am one.
First a quick update on the cancer front. There is new pain in my ribs. The diagnostic radiologist didn’t see anything on the ultrasound, so she’s recommending a PET-CT as the next step. I haven’t been able to reach my oncologist (who is the one who has to order it)...
I am a wimp. It is so easy for me to sit here and expound: “I am so marginalized! The breast cancer awareness community doesn’t talk about people with mets. We scare them. That 30% figure just doesn’t bear thinking about. That’s why they marginalize us.” And we are marginalized....
Early in July I have an appointment with my oncologist. She is younger than I, but more and more people are these days. Her father is an extremely well-respected doctor in his field, a longtime member of the Israeli medical elite. I don’t think she rode on his coattails throughout...
I wrote Part 1 – Discovery of this series in December 2012, followed quickly by Part Two – Biopsy. It’s taken me over half a year to write the third part of the series. The biopsy was a traumatic experience for me and the way I write is to bring...
Deliverance by James Dickey My rating: 5 of 5 stars What an amazing book! It took me completely by surprise and, without belaboring the point, it can be read as an extended metaphor for the most difficult, life-changing challenges of our lives. (Yes, I’m talking about metastatic cancer.) I’ve seen...
On June 19th, 2013, I posted the video “Dumb Stuff People Say to People With Metastatic Breast Cancer” from I Hate Breast Cancer on theTelling Knots, the 30% Facebook page. An interesting conversation followed. My friend Saoul from Italy wrote: “…not everybody is able to convey love through their actions or words. I,...
Yesterday I posted the video “Dumb Stuff People Say to People With Metastatic Breast Cancer” from I Hate Breast Cancer on the Telling Knots, the 30% Facebook page. An interesting conversation followed. Saoul from Italy wrote: “…not everybody is able to convey love through their actions or words. I, for...
Have you noticed how many television shows and movies have a cancer theme these days? And how many of them deal with breast cancer? And how uplifting and inspirational they are, as a rule? In order to keep the shows so relentlessly positive, of course, they don’t show much metastatic...
Last week I published a post about ways of referring to people with cancer at different phases of the disease (Cancer Words), mostly based on an article and a letter in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. (The link will take you to a Medscape Nurses review of the discussion.) You...
Just as there is more to me than simply being a person living with cancer, this blog is about more than cancer. It’s about my life: my joys, things that concern me. One of the things that is concerning me very much these days is poverty. According to a recent...
