Tag Archives: age
In our time (at our age): Facts & Figures
1. “During 2002-2006, women aged 20-24 had the lowest incidence rate, 1.4 cases per 100,000 women.” 2. “The 5-year relative survival rate is slightly lower among women diagnosed with breast cancer before age 40 (83%) compared to women diagnosed at … Continue reading
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Dying Young
I shall live to be old, who feared I should die young I shall live to be old. I shall cling to life as the leaves cling to the creaking oak In the rustle of the falling snow … Continue reading
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7 August 2009: awaiting my own tragedy
Day after biopsy–sitting bandaged in the backyard. An excruciating experience all around–less from the pain of the surgery than the hospital inefficiency, in a corner alone for hours afterward, told I’d see the surgeon–that I must see the surgeon–before leaving. “Before … Continue reading
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15 July 2009: the Lord preserves the young ones
The sick cloud of the final chemo—I can hardly write or fathom the date. Barely able to function in this sick, spinning state. Unable to speak coherently to my mother—having caught me in the library, demanding a date to book … Continue reading
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9 July 2009: Why is there not a discovery in life?
Another bout of this, a day wasted, hours and hours in bed, wet pillowcase. Pain in my armpit. The inability to do anything–and those horrible lines from Love Story, a movie I haven’t even seen, but which has somehow pervaded … Continue reading
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30 May 2009: the Disease
Tired of The Disease’s distasteful interruption to my life. A coping mechanism, I suppose, to view it as a nuisance. Trying to quell the terror of the possibility of this new drug’s being just as ineffective as the last was. … Continue reading
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6 May 2009: some infinite thing
Told, at the hospital, as expected but still shocked into despair, that there’s been no response to the chemotherapy. All these months for nothing–the cancer in there, ‘no response,’ like an obstinant child. Ineffective drugs–the equivalent of having done nothing … Continue reading
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16 April 2009: Chemo #2
I thought I’d be calmer for the second chemo treatment, which was obviously a gross miscalculation of my character. Upon arrival I was handed a sheet with a mammogram request on it; notes dated 26 March stated: ‘suspicious lesions on … Continue reading
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11 April 2009: the loss of hair; ‘the birth of awareness’
English countryside, a concordance of daffodils. I don’t know where the days go. It’s shocking every time I see a clock and am aware of the passage of time. The floors and pillowcases are littered with my hair, which was … Continue reading
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And by ‘anxiety,’ we mean ‘expense.’
In case you missed the controversy sparked yesterday by the “government task force” (can anything sound more Orwellian? who are these people?) over new mammography guidelines, and let’s be honest, I doubt you did: women should start having mammograms at 50, not 40, and … Continue reading
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