March 31, 2021 Where to begin this latest blog? I know I’m working hard to even begin to process my emotions when I can’t find the wherewithal to write about what I’m experiencing. Hence, the gap in blog posts. But now I am once again on the other side, and the words are coming more […]

March 5, 2021 A truly welcome respite…in February 2021. A year into the pandemic. The longest of the winter months. Holidays over, settling into the winter rhythms of chilly air, falling snow, and continued early darkness. With one big caveat: the privilege of an annual escape for the past several years to Aiken, SC with […]

January 21, 2021 The saddest moment of my life was the day my own mother was diagnosed with cancer. It was the beginning of the end of her time here on earth, and her biggest worry was not about herself, but about the impact her illness would have on her family—her father, her two brothers […]

January 6, 2021 9:00 am   Deep breath. Here I sit, waiting to see my oncologist for my “routine” follow up visit. The first follow up after a year and a half of treatment was 6 months ago in June 2020—first via telehealth, delayed by 3 months due to the Coronavirus pandemic, then an in-person […]

January 3, 2021 The COVID-19 pandemic has been with us now for nearly a year. (Just seems like forever so far…) It has been, and continues to be, quite a journey. Filled with losses large and small. Challenging humans, systems, and public health agencies and health systems across the globe while demanding a level of […]

December 16, 2020 This time last year, I shed my cancer patient identity temporarily and traveled to a favorite holiday spot of my husband and mine—Vienna, Austria. There was a time early in my complication filled detour into Cancerland when I wondered if I would EVER travel again. Or even see another Christmas. Again, my […]

December 2, 2020 One of this week’s top stories was the unlikely rescue of a boater in Florida whose boat capsized 86 miles off the coast. Imagine floating next to your partially submerged vessel, with no land and no other vessels in sight. Alone. With daylight fading fast. That pretty much sums up the situation […]

November 26, 2020 “The great thing about having cancer is that everything else seems to not be as much of a crisis as it might be otherwise. Although I would hardly recommend it as a strategy….” The message above is what I wrote in a text message to a family member (who also has cancer) […]

November 9, 2020 This month we have added yet another newly diagnosed family member to the detour into Cancerland—diverse cancer types that have already affected at least three generations of our family: pancreatic, ovarian, kidney, laryngeal, prostate, breast, and colorectal cancer. This week I happened to be watching as Al Roker announced on the Today […]

October 16, 2020 A year ago today, I completed a year of targeted infusions for my type of cancer. On top of a biopsy, initial chemo, surgery and 31 consecutive rounds of radiation. This anniversary milestone has ironically helped to lighten the impact of this detour into Cancerland; I am, after all, only a year […]

October 11, 2020 Maybe the Little Things Aren’t So Little After All   I hardly know where to begin this blog, but maybe it will help to review things that I’ve been up to over the past week. Or maybe it’s more appropriate to place this in the context of what has gone on over […]

September 25, 2020 Lots of things that might have been merely annoying before cancer take on an elevated stature alongside all the other physical and emotional hurdles that accompany the detour into Cancerland. I have developed a skill set over the years of effectively navigating bureaucracies of all types in the service of advocacy for […]