Skip to main content

Cancer goes to the Catskills!

Hello! I'm feeling relatively normal this weekend! Greg and I had some stuff to do at our house upstate, so we went up for the day yesterday. The weather was gorgeous, and our dear friends Katie and Joe met us up there to help and hang with us. Katie being amazing, she brought tons of Home Goods finds, and then she had me pick and choose whether we wanted the various pieces upstate or downstate. So I am now the proud owner of a beautiful wicker candelabra that I had no idea I wanted, but totally do! Because I want this to be the cover photo of this blog post, I'll slip in here that on our drive back to Brooklyn, Greg and I made an aggressive U-turn so we could hit up this endlessly charming ice creamery on the side of the road:


Back to actually being upstate though– we installed AC units, ate the sweetest strawberries, and went for a drink (just water for me!) at the brewery where we all gathered the night before our wedding last year. It was so nice. While at the house, I also couldn't help but think about how I had cancer back then, hiding right beneath my wedding dress. Isn't that strange? Your life is irrevocably changed at a relatively arbitrary moment by the knowledge of something that was already there, multiplying inside of you. But hey, no need to dwell on that bummer of a thought! Here's a nice shot of the Katie and Joe walking up to Arrowood: 


It was great to see Katie and Joe, who are endlessly helpful and supportive. They also look really cute in this photo: 


I am also happy to report that despite some evening heartburn, my stomach is mostly feeling back to normal. Hence this shot of me partaking in a perfect twist cone at that endlessly charming creamery: 


Today, Greg and I woke up fairly early and decided to spandex up and go for a bike ride. This is something that we've been talking about doing for forever. I mean, we bike places for transit purposes, but for exercise?! Well, when cancer comes a-knockin, it's hard to make excuses, and my oncologist says that cardio is good for me, so we hit Prospect Park and did a few laps:


For our fellow tribe members out there, today is also the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. It's a harvest festival, during which you are supposed to eat dairy. So when we got back from our bike ride, Denise had made us the most delicious shroom, swiss, and asparagus crepes:


Tomorrow, I will try and return to a semi-normal work schedule, whatever that means. I'll save the trials and tribulations of making your own schedule while also having cancer for another post. For now, as we near the end of the weekend, I dub the first week of cancer treatment as UNLOCKED. There are many more weeks to go, but I will take this little victory, and will also relish in this week being an 'off' from chemo week. Oh, and I think I can finally eat tomatoes again, praise be!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This is cancer!

Cancer is...  Waking up to find hundreds of hairs on your pillow and being scared of the shower because the hair just won't stop falling out.  Drinking water and electrolytes nonstop and still feeling dehydrated all. the. damn. time.  Reading the same paragraph over and over and over and not absorbing any of it.  Thinking your brain will never be clear enough to finish your dissertation.  Wondering about what you would be doing in that moment if you didn't have cancer.  Saying to yourself, "I have cancer." and it still being weird.  Wanting to call your Mami but not wanting to have to answer the question about why you're not having babies yet.  Sore throats and stuffy noses on the first day of summer.  Feeling an added responsibility to imbue meaning into things because the precariousness of life has been revealed to you.  Going from never napping a day in your life to not being able to keep your eyes open by 3 pm. Being ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Big day for little bear!

To compliment a vom-filled day, I am starting this blog post with a vom-worthy title. When we got up yesterday, Greg said to me, "It's a big day for little bear!" That is one of his many names for me, and sometimes he gets the title of big bear, because, yes we are occasionally gross 🐻s. And what a big day it was! We got to the MSKCC Infusion Center in BK by 8 am. A wonderful nurse named Asha administered my IVs. My parents ran some errands at the Target and Marshalls at Atlantic (Tata M- elle a finalement trouver son propre cady zizette!) Meanwhile, Jeremy, Greg and I hung out and had time for one round of Sushi Go Party (which I won, btw): And then, voila, we were done! I felt absolutely fine leaving the clinic, so we decided to swing by Milk and Honey for brunch. Friends, I hesitate to even post this picture, because the reminder of yesterday still rings hard in my esophagus. But for the sake of the blog, here goes: Let's just say I was a little overzealou...
1 comment
Read more

Well, fuck this shit!

Hello! Lately, I haven't really felt like posting a blog, in part because I haven't really felt like having cancer. When I reached the halfway point last week, instead of feeling a sense of accomplishment, I actually felt really frustrated that I have to repeat the same amount of chemo sessions I already have under my belt.* And then I got to thinking about how I'm only halfway through the first step of my treatment. And how even when I am done with the next intensive steps– surgery, then radiation, and likely, more surgery– I will be taking medicine every day for the next 5-10 years that will basically put me into early menopause. And I will be monitored for the next several decades to make sure this piece of shit cancer doesn't recur somewhere else in my body. Greg initially described this whole cancer thing as a detour. But it actually feels like my car has been hijacked. And when the hijacker finally abandons it, it's keeping a few parts. There's just so...
2 comments
Read more