About 30% of people diagnosed with breast cancer at any stage will develop distal metastasis. I am one.
Like so many other people I have had a challenging life, but as hard as the universe seems to be trying to kill me sometimes, I’m still alive. I’ll leave out the iffy moments in my childhood and go straight to my adult adventures. There was the time in Northern California...
We don’t often talk about the guilt felt by so many people living with cancer. I think we should talk about it more. Guilt is one of those mushroom-like things that grow best in dark places that are rarely exposed to sunlight and air. Shining a light on our guilt,...
I’ve been considering survival as a concept for a long time and my ideas have developed and changed. Two of my early posts, in October of 2011, were “Have I Survived Yet?” Part I and Part II. At that time and until recently I disliked—even resented—the label “breast cancer survivor”....
2014 marks my 19th Pinktober. In 1996 the “Pink Ribbon Culture” was in its’ infancy, everyone climbed on board. In addition to Walks and Runs “For the Cure” an entire cottage industry grew. Pink Ribbon pins, bracelets, and a plethora of other stuffs became available in the marketplace. Breast Cancer...
Pinktober is as alien to me as shopping malls, sporting events, politics and television. I just don’t go there, just don’t do that. I have gone to the local oncology center weekly for over a decade and come to expect the seasonal onslaught of pink promotions. But most of what...
From time to time I think about the words we use to talk about people who have cancer, especially metastatic cancer. There are several posts about this on my old site. One of my favorites is called Chronically Terminal Rumination. In that post, I wrote: My problem with the terminology...
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...
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...
I’ve written quite a bit about the power of words. Words are potent, sometimes in magical. Words do not only express our lived experience, they also give it shape, name it, describe it. One aspect of philosophy of language deals with the interaction and mutual influence of words and thought. Fields...
A smarty and funny Twitter friend and blogger recently reminded me of William Ernest Henley’s poem Invictus. Think of it as a Victorian teenage boy’s version of Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive. At the dawn of his adolescence, Henley was stricken by osseous tuberculosis, eventually having to endure a below-the-knee...
