Category: Diary

“Giving voice to what is inner is essential to surviving what is outer.” That quote is from today’s reading in “The Book of Awakening.” (affiliate link) A wonderful friend sent me this daily dose of wisdom, written by cancer survivor Mark Nepo, shortly after I received my diagnosis. It’s been a balm, frequently calming my…

When Jim and I began dating I was a bona fide city girl. He, who lived in Kane County, claims that I said I would never, ever move to the suburbs. I’m pretty sure what I said was that I’m a city girl. I wasn’t opposed to the suburbs; I just loved living in the…

Today a friend of mine shared that his doctor told him he had three to five years to live; a second opinion gave him a decade. It was only a few weeks ago that he learned he had stage four colorectal cancer. He’s the second friend of ours to be diagnosed with that disease, at…

Playing dress-up has never been my thing. I’ve never been much of a fashionista, and one look at my closet will prove that I’m not one now. It’s color-coded, which might be impressive except for the fact that my clothes are red, black, and some shade of green. I have a few white and a…

Ho Ho Ho! HAIRY Christmas! One of the most well-known, obvious, public, and dramatic side effects of cancer and chemotherapy is hair loss. Alopecia doesn’t occur with all types of chemo, but it frequently does with Adriamycin-Cytoxan, or AC, which is often used for breast cancer. That means women get a double-whammy: not only can…