#13 Recalculating For decades Paul and I have brought together an ever-lovely group of friends and family on our backyard Mt Pollux for Rosh Hashanah. This year it felt important to continue our tradition. I wasn’t feeling 100%, but had so many people help with all...
We leave Amherst at 8 am for a day of appts at MGH in Boston Wednesday. Slated for bloodwork, a conversation with the clinical trial nurses, meeting with the PA, and a PICC line dressing cleaning (which I immediately reframe as a spa experience! Ah the cool cleansers...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 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...
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...
While going through cancer care can be a real bummer, there are all kinds of cool activities, groups, and adventures for cancer patients, survivors, those living with cancer and care givers. As the ranks of those whose lives are touched by cancer grows, so too do...
