“Does everyone undergoing chemotherapy lose their hair?” I asked my oncology nurse. “No, ma’am, depends on the medicine,” she answered without hesitation. Okay, let me get more specific. “Does everyone who gets paclitaxel lose their hair?“ “Yes, ma’am,” she answered, just a tad too cheerfully. At least that clarified what I could expect. In a...
As I started to draft this, it was about 9 pm, I had just gotten off the phone with my medical oncologist, and yet again he managed to push my hot button. (Yes, again.) I’ll say off the bat that I’m impressed he offered to call right after I had placed questions to him in our Viber chat. Kudos to him for that. If you’re not a current or past patient with gripes in your doctor-patient...
Floating, floating, floating…. Have you ever sensed yourself gently floating in air…? Maybe quietly drifting over a pleasing landscape…? I’m not one for remembering my dreams. But I am familiar with this sense of lightness and contentment, of willing myself to hover gently over the earth, weightless, not bound to the ground below, by gravity. It’s a recurring theme that comes up in my sleep. Not...
As far as I can tell, I’m not the complaining type. Yet ever since I began the weekly chemo-treatments nearly a month ago, I’ve felt the impulse (need?) to open up and let off steam more than usual. Since the start of the pandemic and the lockdown here in Manila, every Saturday at 5:30 pm a group of six friends get on Zoom for what we call our Sundowner. Each of us brings a snack and a beverage...
Over the last few days, I’ve not been in a state of mind to journal. Most of my mental attention has gone to client work and an interesting new project I was invited to engage in—perhaps planting the seed for a next chapter in my business journey? I also went for my third chemo session on Tuesday, and while it’s no drama, it does lower my usual energy level; so, when not working, I dawdled… with...
A friend posted a meme in her FB group today that read: Some stranger somewhere remembers you because you were kind to them. That’s such a lovely thought, and being the recipient of kindness from strangers, I know it’s true; at least for me it is. I’ve used the term stranger angel for decades to mean someone I don’t know at all who serendipitously crosses my path and bestows on me an unexpected...
After a good eight-hour sleep, I woke up today feeling abnormally out of sorts. Over the past week, since my second weekly chemo session, I’ve been physically feeling minor aches and pains all over my body when I come out of slumber. But typically, after getting out of bed, moving around, and eating a good breakfast, the rest of the day passes without drama. So that is what I was expecting today...
Have you heard of the I Ching? From what I can tell, not many know much about this ancient Chinese classic, either in China or elsewhere, and only a talented few are masters in its application. Called The Book of Changes in English, this is one of the oldest Chinese texts, estimated to date back over 3,000 years. You might say it’s a divination manual. Or a book of timeless wisdom. I first...