It’s a funny thing: Suddenly everyone we know knows someone newly diagnosed with cancer. Maybe this was happening all around us before we entered cancerland, back when we were unscathed, back before we spoke the language. Back in the Old Country. Now somehow we’ve become greeters here. It seems that Continue Reading
keeping an eye on the heart
Val just called with some results from her dad’s heart tests on Friday: apparently they show no perceivable blockage, which is good news. So no radical actions to be taken at present, but they’ll keep monitoring his heart (I’m not sure how yet) to track the episodes of slow-down. Deborah
Why are tests always on Fridays?
Report from Montana: No news yet. Miles had his stress test and various other investigations in Kalispell today, and they sent him home to await test results Monday. Nothing daunted, the family plans to spend Saturday in Libby at the girls’ high school basketball tournament. What could be more invigorating? Continue Reading
Montana heart
Just when you think things are settling down for five minutes… Val got a call from her dad in Montana yesterday (Wednesday). Miles said he’d been feeling a trifle weak, went to the town clinic and discovered that his heart rate is currently about 40 beats per minute. Which is Continue Reading
Magic 8 Ball
About a week ahead of time, the CT scan makes itself felt on my horizon. It’s a small white noise in the back of my brain, Val’s too I think, more buzzy the closer it gets. Nowadays, in between doctor moments, sometimes we can just have a day. Sometimes several. Continue Reading
new idea
Yesterday we got the CT scan results. (The CT scan was Monday.) The tumor is slightly smaller. And then the doctor made an astonishing statement. Her (unproven) diagnostic hypothesis is that the tumor has died. that i am merely harboring the lifeless carcass of a once-great hunk of cancer.  An Continue Reading
the irritating anomoly
Last May, days before i was diagnosed, Deborah and I had finally come to the conclusion that our complicated lovely relationship could best evolve if we were no longer living together. you may be thinking that what we mean is breaking up. and i must tell you now that we Continue Reading
indecision and hilarity
i read the obituaries every day. i have for years. i try to take note of all the people disappearing. snatched out of place. this place where we live. this valley of land near the criss-crossing rivers, watched over by a sharp volcano. buildings, boats and freeway exchanges keep us Continue Reading