I have been on the new oral chemo protocol for a month now, and things are going along okay. Do I have any side effects? Yep. But it would be a rare thing if I didn’t react in some way to these drugs. The worst of it is shortness of breath going up and down the stairs or if I … Read More
Story Monsters Ink Summer Reading Guide
When things are not exactly going smoothly, a bit of positive news is even more welcome than ever. And to be candid, with all months of testing I have been going through, and the results to those tests that once again put my world into a tail spin, learning that 7th Grade Revolution was featured in the July 2021 issue … Read More
The Winding Road Ahead
This is not a post I wanted to write. As the United States was falling into the rabbit hole of the pandemic in February/March of 2020, I was finishing up a six month cycle of chemotherapy. A cycle where we had high hopes for a long remission and perhaps a return to some sort of normalcy. Not that ANYONE had … Read More
Time Flies – Except in the Chemo Chair
PHOTO BY JORDAN BENTON Phew!! Time has been flying by so fast, I cannot keep up … with anything. I had good intent to keep everyone updated as to my progress through this round of chemo, but managed one post after Cycle 1, Day 1, and here is it a new year and I have completed Cycle 4, Day 3 … Read More
Speak No Evil: Look Behind the Mask
Masks. We all wear them. The different faces we present while in different circumstances … the work mask, the home mask, the party mask, etc. Societally, we are so accomplished at masking ourselves, we often don’t realize we’re wearing one. A physcial mask allows you to hide who you are, providing a sense of anonymity and an unbridled freedom to … Read More
Thrills, Chills, and Oblivion – Chemo Day 1
Chemo Round 2, Cycle 1, Day 1 The image of the roller coaster is an apt description of how yesterday went. I normally try to get my chemo updates done same day, but by the time I made it home I was well and truly exhausted. The day started early because of the 0800 start time. The staff and I … Read More
Speak No Evil: Fear
What is it about fear? It shapes and molds us, makes decisions on our behalf, builds obstacles and then throws them in our path. It puts up walls and encapsulates us in a prison of our own making. Fear wields an almighty power over our lives … because we allow it. The result of fear is a life half lived. … Read More
The Treatment Decision
Off and on since 2013 I have kept a separate blog for keeping people up to date about my journey with cancer. The blog has been gathering dust bunnies for a while since I was in remission for two years and was on a targeted maintenance therapy for two years, and not taking anything for the last 9 months, so … Read More
The Anticipated Decision
For two years, I was on a targeted therapy drug, and it did its job. My blood values were beautiful and stable. But while it kept the cancer in check, my doctor wasn’t happy with the thought of my staying on medication for the rest of my life. So toward the end of last year we made the decision that … Read More
The Shoelace Conundrum
As a child, things came to me easily. I don’t remember learning how to read, I simply read — at the age of two. I just knew things and knew how to do them … until I met my nemesis, the shoelace. When my brother went off to school, I wanted to go to school more than anything else. Not … Read More
Our Broken System
I recently wrote about some of the abysmal statistics of rape cases, where it is likely that only 5 out of every 1,000 perpetrators will go to prison (RAINN.org). Other studies put the number at 7 out of every 1,000, but it remains that less than 1% of the perpetrators will see prison time. In fact, I recently blogged about … Read More
Judging the Judge
Every 92 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted.And every 9 minutes, that victim is a child.Meanwhile, only 5 out of every 1,000 perpetrators will end up in prison. (Statistics from RAINN.org) Let’s talk a little bit about what those numbers mean … like only 0.5% of the perpertators will wind up in prison. Or to put it another way, 99.5% … Read More