Taking a multi-hour bike ride requires a small amount of previous training and a large amount of tenacity. It was what powered me through the many long days on our Goingeast bike tour. It was that tenacity that powered me through my epic ride yesterday. At a certain point, turning around was not an option…
Today’s ride was rather significant for me. For the first time since treatment, I made the ride up Mount Hamilton from the Fire Station. The last time I did the ride was back on June 20 – just as I was starting this blog. Since then I’ve been through 16 weeks of chemotherapy and two…
At a support group the other night, some of the folks mentioned that they found things got easier as time progressed. That is, it was really hard during that time of uncertainty when you first get your diagnosis, but it got easier as you were in active treatment. I hate to be the one to…
I’ve been having sleeping trouble since about September. Taxol chemo seem to be the first thing that impacted my sleep. Then it was surgery. With the combination, I also gained some weight – which really annoys me – because I struggle enough with body image that gaining chemo weight that then doesn’t come off because…
I have been completely fascinated with how my hair was growing. I also was completely attached to it – not wanting to do anything to it – but it was so darn unruly. Adding to the complication, my eyebrows are falling out again. I knew this was a possibility – as many have mentioned the…
Yesterday I watched Grey’s Anatomy (spoiler alert!) – I’m one that loves my medical dramas! On it there was a patient with an incurable brain tumor who also happened to be a specialized fetal surgeon. As always with medical dramas the amazing neurosurgeon at the hospital offers some hope. This character has been on the show…
A friend of mine posted this Guardian Article “What do doctors say to ‘alternative therapists’ when a patient dies? Nothing. We never talk“. Let me begin by saying that I found the article to use an extreme example, which makes me think the author is trying to be sensationalist rather than talk about the issue at…
I wasn’t necessarily trying for a 20km ride – I just wanted to get out for an hour and see how it went. After complaining about getting bored on my home stretch of Guadalupe Trail, I was encouraged by my hubby to start riding a little further afield. So today, I rode the trail down…
One of the things I mentioned in passing during my crazy busy week last week is that I was selected to attend a free weekend retreat for breast cancer survivors. The retreat is called Casting for Recovery (http://castingforrecovery.org) and uses learning how to fly fish as the basis for discussion and processing the breast cancer journey.…
I’ve updated this post on March 2, 2015 to include new instructions if you wish to participate in the sexuality after cancer blog activity. In preparing the week 2 content on “where do you draw the line” for the Should I blog course (http://shouldiblog.org), I realized that sexuality issues are something that I don’t really…
