Cancer Log

A Slightly Morbid Pattern

I really don’t know whether anyone other than me likes this slightly morbid pattern — these are the drawings I did during cancer treatment, incorporated with the poems I wrote during treatment into Perennial, the little romance story I wrote that year about a woman who’s just been diagnosed with breast cancer and the Oak […]

A Slightly Morbid Pattern Read More »

‘Don’t Remember’

Cancer log. Eight years out, and I’m back in for a routine now-annual screening MRI, bilateral breast. It’s been long enough now that I don’t remember the answer to a lot of the questions, so I end up writing ‘don’t remember’ all over the intake form. When was the biopsy? How many were there? Which

‘Don’t Remember’ Read More »

Not True Forever

Working on my cancer memoir (lightly editing the log entries for publication this October from Riverdale Avenue Books), 110 manuscript pages in, and have just hit this paragraph: “I feel fine, people tell me, surprised, that I look great, and then I explain that I haven’t actually started chemo yet, and they say, “oh.” Yes,

Not True Forever Read More »

This one means a lot to me

Another mask of my own fabric design, this time with a coordinating scarf (same pattern, different scale). This is my “Perennial” pattern — it’s made of the sketches I did during cancer treatment, which are part of the little cancer romance I wrote, Perennial. It’s a mix of botanicals with elements like cells undergoing too-rapid

This one means a lot to me Read More »

Perennial Featured in a List of Books About Queer People Dealing With Cancer

Well, this is nice — Perennial was featured in a list of books about queer people dealing with cancer. Surprised me a little, because the main protagonists in the romance are a man and woman, but I’m queer and there are other queer characters in the story, so… (Locals, this book is set in Oak

Perennial Featured in a List of Books About Queer People Dealing With Cancer Read More »

Cancer Log 213

Nothing dramatic, just another routine screening MRI. I don’t mind MRIs, but my oncologist likes to get them with contrast, which means an IV needle, and I do rather hate that part; I still have a little needle phobia after the year of cancer treatment and all the needles. Still, screening is good, better they

Cancer Log 213 Read More »

Rough Cancer Week

Two people close to us (both women not yet fifty) had surgery yesterday for cancer; both surgeries went well, as far as we know, but it was stressful all around, of course, and everyone involved is still anxious. Then today, a good friend (just my age) died. We’ve known she was terminal for some time,

Rough Cancer Week Read More »