To the mamas: having kids in a pandemic seems ROUGH—and I know there are factors making everything even harder—if you are doing it solo, like my sister (alone in a house with two boys for five days at a time while working, someone please give her a medal); if you have health issues; if you’re a frontline worker; if you’re out of work; if you’re doing this for the first time, like two of my […]
Today we're going to talk about COVID-19, what I'm doing, my personal tips on staying sane while social distancing, and what else you can do to help during this pandemic. I hope it's helpful.
Two years ago today, I was discharged from the hospital after a five-day stay, a surgery, and on the heels of another day and night’s stay at a different hospital. Obviously, it wasn’t the best time. Over that week, we went from not quite knowing what was inside of me to understanding that this would be my life for the foreseeable future (even without an official diagnosis, which came later). From my hospital room, we’d […]
Three years ago this week, Nico and I got married, promised to stay together in sickness and in health. We didn’t know at the time, but I was already sick as I stood front of our family and friends in my not-quite-white dress; I’d been having what we now know were lymphoma symptoms for about six months. But ignorance was bliss. Our wedding was a blast, the best party I could ever have asked for—and […]
Last week, Nico and I went to Chicago where I spent two days in various appointments getting my body checked out. I got a contrast CT to check for lymphoma, and also had a breast biopsy because one of my (many) CTs during treatment turned up a small mass in my right breast. Following imaging in February (almost exactly a year from the day I found out about the first mass, because that is what […]
And now for a less depressing, more logistical update on what happens next! As I said in my last post, we head to New York next week. Our movers came yesterday, since it was somehow suddenly the last day of the month. By tomorrow we will be done with most moving-related tasks and enjoying our last weekend in Chicago. Then we’ll fly out to beautiful LaGaurdia airport with our tiny dog on Monday morning. For […]
I haven’t written in a few months, which is the longest I’ve gone since all of this began a year ago. It’s a little hard to explain why, but the short answer is that I’ve been uncomfortable with telling the truth: that in a lot of ways, this part sucks too. Everything I read and was told by survivors or friends with chronic illnesses is that the time after the most dangerous part is the […]
The short version of this post is this: I am in remission and wildly grateful and stunned about the news. To the large number of people I care about who are hearing this via social media or blog post, I am sorry—I usually try to avoid this but have been so exhausted this week that we told very few people individually. It doesn’t mean we don’t want to hear from you! Just that it was […]
Today is my final chemo day!! I’m feeling good—upbeat, ready, and although not terribly strong because I’m pretty fatigued these days, I’d say strong enough considering I’m on month 9 of treatment! Reflecting on the last nine months before this infusion is safely behind us feels like bad luck, so I’m once again not doing that today. This is a two-part post. First, a quick overview of what comes next in terms of appointments, followed […]
I haven’t written in a while, partially because every time I get halfway through a post, things (or how I feel about things) change, and I reread the post and am totally exhausted by the idea of rewriting it. And posting something that no longer rings true seems weird—particularly if I say I’m feeling good, I’d get texts from my loyally reading friends celebrating feeling good and have to reply “no no actually today I […]
But You Look Great... 