A few months ago, Maren came whirling in from the bus on a blustery cold day.  She was spewing hysterical tears and choking on her words. I, of course, am checking to see which limb is missing, or whether her backpack is on fire, or if she has been hit by a car. It was that kind of crying. She was finally able to splutter out, “I lost my shell!”...

My sisters and I often say things “out loud” to each other by way of making it happen.  We know that if we say it out loud, then we’re likely to be held accountable when the listener inevitably follows up. (We’re annoyingly good listeners and communicators about that stuff.  It’s our mom’s fault training.)  It’s a good...

Last week my darling littlest girl managed to wind a round hairbrush up in her hair. I spent at least ten minutes trying to untangle it, and got about ten single strands of hair out during that time. How she got it so wound up in two directions is beyond me. The brush was seriously stuck. Greta was not a fan of the yanking, and I told her we would have to cut it out...

I’m sitting in the chemo room at my non-regular chemo office.  One of my nurses from my regular office is “subbing” here today, and I’m telling everyone I’m VIP and I travel with my own nurse.  (I really, really love my medical team.)  It’s making them laugh.  Laughter is a good thing with which to travel. This morning Dr....

I had my quarterly PET scan this morning. Today’s scan result showed that I have stable lung tumors, and continue to have no cancer in my liver or bones.  It also revealed, however, that there has been progression in my lymph nodes.  My cancer, for whatever reason, is continuing to (slowly) progress and grow in my lymphatic system, but – thankfully — it is not...