Archive for October 2016

The radiation technician directed me to lie face down, arms above my head, on a almost-hard, molded body holder that positioned me from my head to my upper thighs on the platform of the CT Scanning machine. She then covered me with a warm, blanket-like sheet. I was here for the set up and staging…

Last Wednesday Dr. X, my new Oncologist, was straight with me in response to my many questions about the side effects of chemotherapy. “Listen, this treatment will be hard. And, yes, there will be side effects. There will be discomfort and maybe a number of other things will show up as well. You’ll be fatigued…

Scared of what lies ahead for me, I’m often caught in a cycle of worry, fear and uncertainty. I hate the fact that this cancer has shown up. I’m angry at it and what I need to do to fix it. As a result, all sorts of “what ifs” pass through my thoughts on a…

There is a phenomenon in business and life called a “planning fallacy” in which predictions about a future project or task display an optimism bias and underestimate the time, expense or resources needed to complete it. And, while I am pretty good at spotting the planning fallacy in my role as a business owner or…

After a full week of scans, testing and meetings with doctors, the verdict, though still inconclusive, suggests that I have Stage 3 rectal cancer, with possible spread to lymph nodes. It’s Stage 3 because the cancerous mass is, in fact, through the wall of the rectum. It is not contained as originally indicated in earlier…