#11 Grape Juice
We drive part way to Boston before answering a call that in fact, they do not have a bed for me. When we return home to our bonus day, we think together, what shall we do? We harvest our overflowing patch of tomatoes and Paul makes his famous slow-cooked-with...
#10 Buzz Cut
I am blessed with a head of thick, dark, hair, often long and usually straight. If there is a quick, low-maintenance way to wear it, I do, from a pony tail, to tucked up in a bun with a chopstick. In my 40s, as eager strands of silvery white wisp into the mix, I like...
#8 Surrender
With any big diagnosis,, or maybe it’s just life, there are bumps along the way. I always hope the bumps smooth out, that they are not too serious, and that reasonable solutions are found. I personally am looking for grace when I hit a bump, but it is not always in...
Field Notes from Fifty-Five Fruit Street #7. Pain
I was not thinking much about pain when I was getting ready to report to duty at Fifty-Five Fruit Street. Mine has been a life devoid of physical pain. Never have a headache, never broke a bone, never had dental pain, don’t suffer from a chronic inflammatory ailment...
Field Notes from Fifty-Five Fruit Street #6. Context Dependent
In our family’s work, each of us is involved with team building and creating unified efforts with articulated goals across our chosen areas of expertise — medicine and healing, the arts, technology, and sports. One thing we all appreciate is that most everything in...
Field Notes from Fifty-Five Fruit Street #5. Shower
In 1986 when Paul and I honeymoon in the North Cascades, neither of us is an experienced backpacker. On one leg of our journey, we arrive at Nancy Lake, at the far end of Lake Chelan at an exquisite campground along the water. After being in the woods and carrying...
The day we check in, staff is running late. We go exploring down Charles Street and around the neighborhood, come back to MGH and run into a construction worker looking out a picture frame window at excavating being done between buildings. I ask him for a verbal tour...
#3 Field Notes From Fifty-Five Fruit Street: Introducing RALPH
The biggest challenge about living at a hospital for a month or so is the head game. For me it’s about creating routine, being kind to everyone, getting exercise, doing “normal” things, being creative, and staying in the moment. Many of you know I love to dance. So...
#2 FieldNotes from Fifty-Five Fruit Street. Let’s Eat!
I could write a whole piece on hospital food and snacks. On the lack of taste or the overly salted, or the ultra-processed snack options and chronic-disease-causing vittles. But I’d rather focus on another part: the long menu of a la carte meal options, the cooks...
FieldNotes from Fifty-Five Fruit Street #1. Feeling Perfectly Healthy and Hearing, “You Have Leukemia”
On a clear day in August, with lofty clouds breezing across the afternoon sky, I run a mile, lift weights, pick up my farm share, and speak with a few patients who had summertime colds. I sprawl out on my sunporch in the late afternoon and take a luxurious nap. I...