Category Archives: Cancer

This morning, as I was getting ready to take a shower, I noticed that the red area on the skin on the side of my chest, beneath my right arm, had grown in size. I looked closer and noticed a … Continue reading →

Thursdays are “talk with the doctor” days after radiation treatment. First, a nurse weighs the patient, then another nurse queries the patient about any problems or questions, then a dietitian asks probing questions about the patient’s appetite and discusses his … Continue reading →

Just twenty more radiation treatments to go. I’ve completed one third of them. The skin on my chest and back can attest to the fact that I’ve had treatments. It’s tender and, in a place or two, slightly inflamed as … Continue reading →

January 14, 2019 I didn’t realize until today that I never bothered posting yesterday’s “Cancer Journal.” No matter, it wasn’t particularly insightful. I’ll include it with today’s, just for the record. I woke late again today, thanks in large part … Continue reading →

Today might as well have been a fleeting idea, an ephemeral abstraction that never solidified into reality. Today is now lost to a fog, for me. I hope days like today are few and far between. Not only because they … Continue reading →

There’s evidence that the chemo may be ready to cause nausea. Yesterday, even before the seventh radiation treatment, I felt a tiny hint of nausea, enough that I decided to take the nausea pills with me to the session. I … Continue reading →

Yesterday’s sixth radiation treatment preceded a brief visit with the radiologist. The only discussion centered around the fact that I’ve been quite fatigued, off and on. His advice was to push it. Walk. More. A lot more. On the one … Continue reading →

Radiation treatment number five is now history, with only twenty-five of the scheduled thirty left. As I sat waiting to be called in for my treatment yesterday, a nurse wheeled in a very frail, old man to the waiting room. … Continue reading →

Yesterday, I had my fourth radiation treatment, which went without a hitch. I told the technicians about my conversations with the center staff (both chemo and radiation nurses) and they seemed to know nothing about the discussions. They seemed unfamiliar … Continue reading →

Yesterday’s treatment regimen began with radiation therapy at 10:30 a.m., my third session. As I waited to be called in for the session, a guy came into the waiting room and sat down near me. He introduced himself as Terry … Continue reading →

This morning, we drove through pea-soup fog and darkness to the radiation therapy center, arriving just about the time the clean-up crew arrived. I much prefer to be half an hour early than 5 minutes late. Right on time at … Continue reading →

This afternoon, my wife and I drove to the oncology clinic, where I was scheduled to have a blood draw. The moment I walked in, one of the staff members told me she had just spoken to a doctor’s office … Continue reading →

I noticed today that the pain in my back and chest seems to take on difference characteristics from time to time. I don’t know whether that has to do with time of day or amount of activity I’m involved in … Continue reading →

I think, for the first time since I got the diagnosis of lung cancer, the realization has finally hit me that I’m in a fight for my life. Maybe I’ve come to that realization before, but I’ve blocked it. Maybe … Continue reading →

For the last two days, I’ve felt better. My surgical pain, though decidedly still with me, has been tolerable. I’ve not taken any oxycodone for pain in quite a few days, but I’ve increased my gabapentin by about a third … Continue reading →

Yesterday was a miserable day. I wasn’t able to sleep the night before, due both to simple discomfort and distractions and to pain. Yesterday, I tried to sleep during the day with little success. I couldn’t get warm, no matter … Continue reading →

My blog, once a repository for creative ideas I wanted to save from the ravages of time, seems to have become a repository for experiences I would rather have avoided. Instead of letting my blog serve as the moderately willing … Continue reading →

I haven’t posted much of late about my experiences learning about and responding to cancer. The primary reason for the drop in output is the decline in my certainty about what I’m dealing with. The certainty…uncertainty…certainty…uncertainty cycles have been torturing my … Continue reading →

I am out of the hospital. Apparently, though, the hospital adventure was just the start of a series of experiences designed either as lessons, to make me a better person, or as punishments in response to the kind of person … Continue reading →

The first few days after surgery were easily tolerable. The epidural and other pain meds made to easy to believe all was well. Well, the pain was masked. The agony was replaced by strange hallucinations. I spoke to Santa Clause … Continue reading →