My maternal grandmother, Dorothy, warned us early and often: ”Don’t get old.” She died at age 83, which seems like an alarmingly short life when…
Browsing Tag
chemotherapy
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The precarity of life — the topic I write about most often these days — made itself known again this weekend. Precarity, to me, is…
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Fighting Back Giving Back GratitudeFive percent is everything: Reflections on 12 years of survivorship
March 27, 2024, marks 12 years since I was diagnosed with what turned out to be stageIIIB rectal cancer. 4,383 days. Bonus time. Time that,…
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My oncologist gave me the best gift I could have asked for this Christmas. He released me from his care. At almost 11 years since…
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The atrium coffee shop at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center is sunlit and relatively quiet. I’m on a break between scans to pinpoint newly diagnosed…
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Dear Mr. President, About your budget proposal. Listen, I get that you want to reduce inefficiencies in the federal government. Streamlining is a good thing.…
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“When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he’d reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him.…
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Learning you need a colostomy, whether temporary or permanent, can be nearly as devastating for some patients as hearing the words, “you have cancer.” As…
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Somewhere in the middle of my cancer experience, I became an evangelist for the power of gratitude. About halfway through 12 cycles of chemotherapy, I…
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A friend and I were shooting Facebook Messenger messages back and forth this afternoon, precipitated by actor Wentworth Miller’s heartfelt and honest social media post…