After my weekend writing spree, I haven’t been into writing so far this week. In part I’m struggling with motivation. Although I had started walking again on Sunday, I was still struggling with achy joints and swollen body parts. Now it is just plain motivation to sit in front of my computer. I’m not just…
Over the last couple of months, the city (or some other civic body) has been clearing out some of the larger trees and deadwood from the Guadalupe River. This has mean that when I go on my walks, I’m now able to see more of the river, which in turn means I see more birds…
I have many excuses not to walk – this last week has been full of them – first it was my ankles swelling up, then it was a couple of days full of doctors appointments, then the pain from having my big toenails removed … lots of very good excuses … but none of them…
I’ve gotten pretty good at interpreting what the pathology reports say, but I’m not great at what it means. Just before my oncologist walked into the room I said to Scott – “what I’m afraid of is that he will recommend more chemotherapy”. My oncologist walked into the room and said that he would be…
On Thursday I received the first of the surgical pathology reports. I’ll get another at the end of the month after my bilateral mastectomy. This one reported on nine tissue samples that were taken on my November 19th surgery. First and foremost, my nodes remain “negative for carcinoma”. In addition, the sub-nipple biopsy also indicates…
Each year on December 6, I remember the École Polytechnique massacre. At the time, I was a student at the University of Ottawa studying computer science (which was in the Faculty of Engineering). I was one of 4 or 5 girls in my entire class. We didn’t have cohorts, so I don’t remember the overall size…
Of all the things the resident said, this was the one that stuck – no coffee or chocolate (more specifically, no caffeine) for a month after surgery. You see, caffeine is a vessel constrictor (it makes your blood vessels smaller). Microsurgery involves reattaching things at the vascular level – and as such, you want the…
Yesterday was a whirl wind day, with lots of doctors appointments and lots of updates, so I’ll be braking this up into several smaller posts to make it easier to manage. Here is a list of updates to come: My visit to the nail doctor (part 1) Upcoming surgery (Dec 17) pre-op appointments Pathology –…
So the neuropathy in my finger tips must be getting better because, when the nail doctor ‘trimmed’ off the bad nails, I was left with areas of my nails having a very odd sensation – and there is no mistaking that I’m feeling it! The doctor trimmed the bad parts but I told him that…
I am looking for cancer bloggers who are willing to act as mentors to those who wish to start blogging about their cancer journey. I will be creating and facilitating a free online course that runs monthly (starting March 2015) to help those who have been diagnosed with cancer to decide if they wish to…
