This is part three in a series about the lymph, it deals with some of the ins and outs of lymphedema. Click here to read Part One-Yin Magic about the lymph as divine feminine & Part Two- Watersheds about the correlations between the Earth and our bodies. Part Three – Eating Rats The lymph system is…
Category: Cancering
Don’t Think about Pink Elephants
There is a certain looking-for-trouble aspect of the oncology world that rattles me. I am going in for my yearly mammogram next week. A ridiculous activity geared to make money versus because it makes sense. Everyone in the equation knows that I have an extremely dense breast, and that my mammogram will be inconclusive – a breast…
The Saturation Point
Oh happy May. Saturday Joe and I went for a delightful walk on an old logging road into the state forest behind Alderbrook. Immersing ourselves in bird song and the verdant growth of unfurling spring leaves. We spoke of what nurtures, of what fills up our batteries, and how to prioritize joyful activities. Both of us have a…
A Tale of Two Tamoxifens – a case study
*2016 update: I wrote this post in early 2015 while figuring out which brand of Tamoxifen worked best for me. I have since also adjusted my dose from 20mg, to 10mg. The first thing I do each morning is to push back the curtain and look out at the landscape. Morning meditation is spent observing the light…
An Over-Expression of the Heart
Every three weeks I entered the infusion room with a sharpie marker. I used it to write little messages or blessings on my IV bags. Things like ” Thank you yew tree” on the bag of Taxotere, or “Avoid the heart” on the Herceptin. The little ritual of checking to make sure it was my name…
The Happy Anniversary Conundrum.
A year ago yesterday I was given a diagnosis, and got on the Pooka’s back, thereby starting my wild transformative journey. I could not even say the word mastectomy out loud then, I had lots of fear. (I now know that some of my anxiety the week of my biopsy and diagnosis was directly related to a…
“When sorrows come…”
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Hamlet to Horatio These last weeks I have been playing a minor character in the last production in the life of my friend Meg. She is dying from late stage breast cancer. I have written before about my views of…
War Stories
This past week we had the bank holiday to honor veterans, both those who have served in the military and those who have been to war. Close to 40,000,000 US soldiers have served during war time, and over 580,000 U.S. soldiers are estimated to have died as a result of armed conflict since our nation was founded….
Honoring Birds & Día de los Muertos
Birds “Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Only a life lived for others is worth living.” –Albert Einstein We have a game we play each day when we go for our walk-…
Harmony
We just got back from a blessed adventure. Wednesday through Friday we attended a family retreat at Harmony Hill, a beautiful healing center near Hood Canal, a little more that 3 hours north east of Astoria. This has been a wonderful week. We all feel so lucky to have been able to attend the retreat. To be together- separate from…
Bali Ha’i
Bali Ha’i may call you, Any night, any day, In your heart, you’ll hear it call you: “Come away…Come away.” Bali Ha’i will whisper On the wind of the sea: “Here am I, your special island! Come to me, come to me!” Sometime in January I started to have hot flashes. Micro bursts of temperature…
On the other hand . . .
When I look down at my right hand, I see the progression of my treatments visually etched into my nails. Stripes mark the 3-week intervals. The discolored areas that separated from the nail bed, due to the toxins in the yew-based chemo, are now nearly grown out, while the pale stripes marking the Herceptin continue. I…
Riding the Pooka 