My Multifocal Life
The Case of the Spiculated Tumor
Just as I was preparing to post this long delayed cartoon, I learned that my cancer was active again. I will no doubt have another
January 26, 2017
My Multifocal Life
The Scan Report
The oncologist does not mince words when delivering the scan report. Good news (“Good Pet”) or bad, it’s the facts minus emotion. December 2016 brought
December 14, 2016
Friendship
Summer Diary: Making friends, silver and gold, new and old
Old-age friendships are slightly different from those made in the past, which consisted largely of sharing whatever happened to be going on. What happens to
August 22, 2016
Cancer Gadfly
Cancer Gadfly: Drinking the Big Pharma Kool-Aid
“Immunotherapy Drug Fails Lung Cancer Trial.” Naturally the headline caught my eye since I have been reading about lung cancer since my husband was diagnosed
August 10, 2016
My Multifocal Life
Scanxiety
“Scanxiety,” a coinage not of my making (I wish!) but that makes the point efficiently, is an attempt to represent the limbo I described in
July 28, 2016
Noted
Summer Diary: Father’s Day
Today I found myself purging the files from the research I did for What They Saved. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while,
June 21, 2016
Cancer Gadfly
Cancer Gadfly: Still Alive, or The Mortifications of Survival
Readers of the London Review of Books will know that Jenny Diski has been writing diary posts about her cancer for over a year. In
December 2, 2015
Friendship
Losing Friends
I don’t love Facebook, even though I’ve used it, abjectly, to promote my last book. Beyond the obvious embarrassment of self-exposure, the most anxiety-producing feature
November 19, 2015
Cancer Gadfly
Cancer Gadfly: Limbo
After a series of stable scans, and almost 4 years of monthly chemo, last week my cancer treatment was abruptly cancelled. No doctors, nurses, blood
September 22, 2015
Noted
“Roberta liked Flavia… they shared a tennis court” (apologies to Virginia Woolf)
I can’t have been the only viewer of the U.S. Open women’s final, who teared up at the sight of the two competitors, Roberta and
September 15, 2015
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.