My Multifocal Life
Anniversaries
December 31, 2018. The seventh anniversary of my cancer diagnosis. I’m as surprised still to be alive as I am to be relying on my spiffy, purple walking stick […]
January 3, 2019
My Multifocal Life
Last Encounter with the Robot
Since I’m not Pope Francis, what will it mean for me to live with 2/5ths of my lung capacity gone, thanks to my last encounter
May 27, 2018
My Multifocal Life
Scanxiety 2
Last year, around the time I created the “scanxiety” collage, one of my tumors started to change size, which led to surgery this past January.
January 7, 2018
Cancer
Indelible Memories, Legible Bodies: The Case of Graphic Illness Memoirs
I will be giving a talk on November 20th at an interdisciplinary conference in France (in French, English, and Spanish) with the overarching theme: “Memories, Marks, Imprints.”
November 15, 2017
My Multifocal Life
Spiculation
After 6 months of “partial remission,” and almost five years of “progression-free survival,” I’ve learned just how partial “partial remission” can be. One of the
December 18, 2016
My Multifocal Life
Partial Remission
After the last appointment (June 2016), my oncologist doubled the time between scans to once every six months from every three. Almost five years later,
June 30, 2016
My Multifocal Life
Is Waiting Also Living?
We wait in our chairs to hear our name called. Some in wheel chairs, Others with carers, canes, oxygen tanks, or neck braces. Soon my
December 10, 2015
My Multifocal Life
Chemo Brain
Most define it as a decrease in mental “sharpness”—being unable to remember certain things and having trouble finishing tasks or learning new skills. When it
October 12, 2015
My Multifocal Life
Infusion for Two
Last week my friend Aiobheann Sweeney and I discovered we were having an infusion (a k a chemo) the same day in the same cancer
May 15, 2014
My Multifocal Life
The Compliment
When friends learn you are in treatment for cancer, naturally they prefer not to believe it. They want to cheer you up. “But you look
May 30, 2013
Welcome. Some musings on my current preoccupations with the worlds of illness and the worlds of books, the vicissitudes of living with cancer and the need now, in my eighties, to imagine what new writing might be.