Welcome!

My last short fiction instructor told us not to write about cancer. "It's been done," she said. Well, the hell with that. I learned in the last three weeks that I have stage III breast cancer. Writing, painting, and assorted other arts are how I process stuff, in addition, of course, to long conversations with friends. These conversations have begun in earnest these recent days, but I realized my Facebook page in particular was in danger of becoming a medical-update site. I do not want that. My life is still going to be about more than cancer, as much as that may not seem possible right now. Also, I don't want to alienate friends who are not ready to walk this particular valley with me at this time. For example, one elderly friend who called to cheer me up this week can't even handle the "c-word," and there is no way she will be up for any truly frank discussion of what's about to happen here. So she is advised to keep in touch with me via Facebook. People who are comfortable with the c-word, honest discussion and occasional cursing are welcome to join me here.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Photo of the Day

One thing I want to do with this blog is put on some kind of Photo of the Day.

Last year, during the big blizzards, I loved looking at the time-lapse videos that showed the snow piling up on the deck chairs of some guy's back yard in New Jersey.   I want to do a similar thing, starting today, before I begin chemotherapy tomorrow, and ending whenever I wind up looking "normal" again, whatever that may mean in the end.  I want to get a time-lapse view of how a person looks plunging into this, bottoming out, and coming out the other side.  Twice in the last several years, I have run into acquaintances who were in the darkest part of their cancer treatment.  I had not even known they were ill.  They looked like death.  But one of them moved away, out of state, and one just moved in different circles, and I never did see them again as they got better.  I would have liked to have seen that part of the story, too. I think maybe some day a photo record like this might prove encouraging to someone that wants an idea of how this process can go.  So, please humor me this self-indulgence.  Thanks.

Of course, now I have to locate a tripod and figure out how to use the time-delay feature on this tiny camera...
Posted by at

1 comment:

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)