week 2 round-up
Another week of treatment just started. The weekend was great. I listened to BBC Radio 4 on the computer and recuperated. Yes, my mouth is dry but I’m very far from dead yet. Sept 1, Monday: I saw Doctor Ding, my radiation doctor, today. She checked my mouth and seemed happy enough with me. I’ve lost one […]
wedding bells
My student Tsungyi and his fiancée are getting married today. Many happy years to them! I would have liked to go to the party but I’m too tired, and also I’m afraid I will jinx the occasion. Chinese people are big on happiness at weddings. They don’t want people around who remind them of death. […]
Cravings and aversions
This is the food I really, really can’t stand: Chinese eggs cooked in tea (to be found in every 7-Eleven in Taiwan — their smell is perfectly nauseating) rice — even the plainest, simplest and whitest kind milk shakes anything spicy — including Thai and Indian food soy milk noodle soup intestines, pork hearts, chicken […]
what are my chances?
I wonder what my chances really are. In movies there is always a doctor in a white coat who says “you have only three more months to live” or “there’s a 40% chance you’ll survive.” But no one has told me anything like that. I guess it’s because all cancers are different. Your neighbor’s cancer […]
week 1 round-up
This is a round-up of what happened in the first week of my treatment: Aug 26, Wednesday morning, 3.30 A.M.: I feels like the winds of the Sahara are sweeping in through my mouth every time I take a breath. Something is definitely happening. The radiation is having an effect. Good, I say. The worse I […]
Tim Minchin, doctor of the soul
There is a lot of vague talk about the “importance of keeping your spirits up” during cancer treatment. Apparently, unless your spirits are kept up, the cancer will get you. “Laughs,” many proverbs in many languages tell us, “prolong your life.” Somehow or another I’m not convinced. Your cancer cells aren’t just another audience to […]
my first day of chemo
I had the first day of chemotherapy today. In Swedish chemotherapy is cellgiftsbehandling — “cell poison treatment.” Somehow or another I envisioned test tubes filled with bubbling green, poisonous, liquids stirred by mad witches. Actually it’s nothing like that. They put you in a bed, insert an IV channel into your hand, and hook you up to […]
my first day of radiation
I just came back from my first radiation session. It was easy piecy! I expected blood and tears, but I didn’t even break a sweat. Today my friend Qionghui and her husband accompanied us to NTU hospital. Qionghui told me about her aunt who had a cancer operation just like mine. That was thirty years […]
like a six week dental appointment
My treatment begins today. The last two weeks have been great. No doctor’s appointments, no tests, only a lot of lazying about. I’ve thought about other things; I’ve felt almost like a normal person. Now there is no more postponing it. I’m forced to come back to my cancer. I’m going up to Taipei every […]
more hotel decadence
We are going off on another mini-vacation. Our decadent hotel stay in Tainan was such a great success, we have to repeat the experience. Besides, it’s the last hurray before the kids go back to school, before Diane starts working, and before my treatment. Are you allowed to enjoy yourself when you have cancer? Of […]