About 30% of people diagnosed with breast cancer at any stage will develop distal metastasis. I am one.
This post first appeared in November 2011, but the poem has been on my mind lately. I’ve been feeling bad about myself, thinking about how cancer and major injuries like the one I got in the bus bombing have left me with a distorted body and impaired physical and mental ability; feeling...
Bill Becker’s wife Lisa has made the heartbreaking announcement that Bill is taking the final steps of his journey. The end has come very quickly, much faster than expected. It is a shock. I don’t want to eulogize Bill after his death; I want to honor him while he still...
“We all have to go sometime.” “Yes, but some of us already have our boarding pass.” That used to be my snappy comeback when healthy people tried to compare the natural end of their lives to the probability of an untimely end to mine. I stopped saying it for a...
Yes, in a few short weeks it will once again be Pinktober, the annual pink, fluffy feel-good fest that passes for breast cancer awareness during the month of October in the USA and online. There is no reason to expect that metastatic breast cancer will get any more attention that...
Meet Dorphina. Dorphina is a York Excel 40300 model treadmill and she has changed my life. Before Dorphina came into my life I was spending most of my time in bed propped up on pillows or on the chaise longue in the garden. I needed the walker pretty much all...
Hot day in July, time to make lemonade. Sugar, lemon juice and a little hot water are already mixed up in the bottle. All that remains is to pour the cold water through the funnel and fill the bottle. Pouring from a Brita water-filter pitcher into the funnel. Left hand...
During what has come to be known as the First Gulf War in 1991, Iraq bombarded Israel with Scuds (tactical ballistic missiles) that were believed to be armed with poison gas. The Israeli population was equipped with emergency kits that included a gas mask and filter and an atropine syringe....
Liza Weeks Mayeske, a young mother of two little boys, died yesterday from metastatic breast cancer. It happened so fast. On June 19th she posted this on her public Facebook page: I’m still on oxygen and bed and wheelchair ridden, but my tachycardia seems to have gotten a little better...
Today I am pleased and honored to present a guest post by my friend Holly Lamont. Holly is only 40 years old and she has had to retire from the job she loved because of metastatic breast cancer. This post was her Facebook status on June 5th, and she has...