I am a Hostile Witness to the barriers to treatment for mental, chronic, physical, and community health. If a trained advocate like me has this much trouble navigating the opaque system, the rest of you are fucked. Let’s unfuck the barriers together.
Radiation Therapy Sounds I tried to pay close attention to the sounds from my radiation therapy experience today. Sounds that we all take for granted, but lend themselves to our overall experience. While I’m actually in the radiation theater, there is a distinct white noise that permeates the room. The behemoth radiation machine that reminds me of […]
MoreCancer: For Whom The Bell Tolls So I haven’t told you yet about the bell in the radiation oncology waiting room. It is there for your last radiation treatment. It’s a modest bell on the wall near the exit. I hardly noticed it until a patient came from the back area, and rang it jubilantly […]
MoreHospital Parking Lots Today’s radiation treatment went smoothly except for the parking garage was full. How does that happen? The entire hospital is full? The hospital parking garage is actually one of the worst parts of my whole cancer experience. I’m not normally a road rage sort of person, but there is something about people going […]
MoreRadiation Treatment Third day of radiation treatment and I’m already making enemies with the inmates. There are twenty lockers for approximately 3-4 women going through the locker room at any given time. You already know what happened when I went in there, and I think you know me well enough to know how I responded. Locker […]
MoreSuperstitions: Part 1 A photo is worth a thousand words, right? So, decades past my teenage years, I am finally a sexter. You heard me. I was having difficulty explaining to my non-proximal friends what all the hub-bub about my chest lines was about so I sent a photo of Me Boob to my girlfriend. […]
MoreLuxury: Eve Before Radiation Treatment I spent a delightful hour on the stair stepper this morning with all the other resolutionaries except that the guy next to me could not go more than twenty seconds without staring at the blue lines below my clavicle (handy word, that). I thought he might injure himself he was […]
MoreGirl with the London Tube Map Tattoo: Prep for Radiation It was a wild visit with my radiation oncologist this week. I popped in for my radiation simulation not knowing exactly what to expect. What I didn’t expect was to leave with seven tattoos and a rendering of the blue line and the red line from the London […]
MoreRadiology Oncology appointment this week. We’re gonna go for the full monty (different context than Devlin’s full monty in the park over the weekend). Full monty only in the sense that I’ll have six weeks of treatment as opposed to one. I had an opportunity to undergo a shorter, more directed course of radiation to […]
MoreNo Chemotherapy Just in Time For the Holidays It struck me today when I was waiting in my medical oncologist’s patient office that I have more boob cancer doctors than I have breasts. Any more doctors in the room and we’ll need a lubricant. It’s like having more children than I have hands, or more […]
MoreI’m full of surprises these days. Before I explain some behavior is a result of autism not rudeness, it turns out I don’t need chemotherapy. Only I sort of wanted it. Who in their right mind would want chemotherapy? I do, as it turns out. It has surprised me, but I guess I’m a full […]
MoreStage 1 Tumor Follow-up post-surgical appointment today with my Surgeon. Nodes negative. Stage 1 tumor was a total wimp and measured a measly one centimeter. It’s the embarrassing garbanzo bean of cancers. Like not weighing enough to enter the light weight division before a big high school wrestling meet. Could have been worse. It could have […]
MoreEverything is going very well. My friends have been phenomenal. My in-laws have really stepped up with the kids. The Morning of My Lumpectomy The day of the surgery we arrived at the hospital at 6:00 a.m. The first order of business was to go to the Nuclear Medicine department and let the Gamma Ray […]
MoreYes to Drugs Yes. Yes. Yes to Drugs. Everything went fine during my lumpectomy and I’m at home now resting comfortably. My bed is my sanctuary. We got to the hospital on time, just like we were supposed to. Nailed it. I changed into my hospital gown and I looked amazing. Well, as amazing as […]
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