VACATION ENDED, SICK-LEAVE ABOUT TO COMMENCE

Brave and Wonderful

She didn't let cancer spoil her life

 Yesterday I returned from enjoying the holidays with my family in Alaska, during which time (over two weeks), I added nothing to this blog.  Now, however, I hope to write several more little essays  before I begin sick leave (knee operation) in less than a week.  I need to keep writing, if for no other reason than to keep my “hits” up.  I can now boast that I have over 10K hits all time, with nearly 11K if you toss in the other blog (Fight Back against Ovarian Cancer).  However, during my “vacation” my hits-per-day dropped from about 15 on average, to just 2!  Clearly, I need to keep writing.  The situation is somewhat like the career path of an academic research geologist: do some research, write it up, present it at a meeting, “network”  while  there - so you can hope to get another grant, enabling you to do some  more research, write it up, etc., etc.  The only difference is that, in writing this blog, I am doing something useful, I hope – helping to make people aware of the causes, symptoms, treatments and cures of ovarian cancer.  I participated in the geological squirrel-in-a-revolving-cage exercise because it was fun, not because it did anybody (but me) much good

So, anyway, let me tell you about a worthwhile short article in the NY Times, which you can read by clicking on:  http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/02/missing-a-cancer-diagnosis/?ref=health&_r=0.  This seems to be part of a series called “Living with Cancer”, written by Susan Gubar, who has advanced stage ovarian cancer.  In this column she discusses her symptoms – just those I have written about many times previously – and how she and her doctors ignored them.  She discusses her feelings once the truth was known; how she blames herself - and her doctors – and what she or they might have done.  She writes well and analyzes feelings carefully; I urge you to click and read. 

Following her one-page essay are 17 pages of “comments”.  These also are worth reading.  I did; why not?  I couldn’t figure out how to stop my printer from spewing out all 18 pages.  Fortunately paper is cheap – although printer cartridges certainly aren’t!

Finally, another old friend of mine has died of cancer: leukemia, in his case.  I had worked with him and shared jokes, complaints and successes with him, for 44 years.   He was 88, so I guess it’s all right, although I regret it.  Maury, you will be greatly missed.