Tag Archives: depression

Neither Here Nor There

As I near the completion of my active treatment for cancer, I often think of what others call the landmarks and milestones I reached and passed. The biopsies, surgeries, the chemotherapy, the hair loss, the reconstruction, the PET scans, the follow ups, the blood work, the hair re-growth. It sounds as if I walked around …

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My Sleeping Beauty

As I dread going to bed every night because of my persisting nightmares, I take comfort in watching my dog sleep. I have always loved watching her sleep and took pictures of it. Maybe one day, the peace that settles over her, will rub off on me too. My naturopath thinks I have PTSD and …

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The Father’s Day Bitter Pill

I forgot, It’s Father’s Day. I turn on Facebook and nearly everyone’s profile picture is changed to a faded or even a black and white photo of themselves with their father. All of them smiling, in an embrace, holding hands, gazing at each other lovingly, mid pose in a wedding dance, on a boat holding …

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“I Would Rather Have AIDS than Leukemia”

I creep quietly in the cancer support group room because I am almost 15 minutes late. This is a new set of people for me. A fourth different group so far. I have been trying to find one that would actually live up to its name. I sit down in the last empty chair and …

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Hey, God: Fuck Your Plan

I saw a phrase recently that said something like God won’t give you what you can’t carry. To me it is just another one of the platitudes that religious people use to make themselves or someone else feel better about their shitty lives. After what has happened to me in the past couple years (and …

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Lady In Waiting

That’s me minus the queen and the court. I wait. I wait to go to the doctor’s appointments. I wait for the results of scans and tests. I wait for phone calls giving me good news or shattering my life. I wait to fall asleep through my anxiety. I wait to eat because my stomach …

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Trans-Vaginal What?

My oncologist called me, or rather sent the news via my chemo nurse, to let me know that I needed to go get a pelvic ultrasound because of an inconclusive PET scan. This was on late Friday afternoon, so I spent the whole weekend thinking I have uterine cancer, alternating between crying uncontrollably and feeling …

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Can You Guess the Artist and Song?

I decided to create a poem using only the lyrics from various songs. This is about my experience with eye cancer, breast cancer, people telling me what to do and how to do it, my husband being deployed during all this, and dealing with the possibility of more health problems. I will post under the …

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I’ll Just Pretend the PET Scan Was Clear

I sat in the doctor’s office waiting room, mindlessly switching from one website to another on my tablet. My insides were twisted in pain and waves of fear pulsated down through my fingers. Then I saw him. The doctor was coming through the waiting room with lunch in his hands. He spotted me and said …

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I Am Becoming Rain Man

Ever since I got my second cancer diagnosis, I noticed my increasing need for a specific routine and a rising obsession with every detail of my life. I won’t get up from the bed until the alarm clock rings even if I wake up earlier and feel ready to go. I walk my dog after …

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