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
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
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
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
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
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
Noted
“What are you looking for, Mama?” Summer Diary, continued
A man’s voice interrupts my reverie with the inquiry, as I stand surveying the salad on offer at the local West Side Market. Proof that
August 31, 2015
Cancer Gadfly
Cancer Gadfly: What’s God Got To Do With It?
I was mulling over Oliver Sacks’s mellow meditation on his terminal cancer diagnosis, when Jimmy Carter came out with his cancer story. (Curiously, both illnesses
August 24, 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.