Category Archives: Patient Advice and Support

March 31, 2025 · 4:58 pm

The Mornings are the Worst

This is not my kitty. It’s a sweet expression though, and I love kitties.

I woke up this morning acutely aware of several things. None of them were good, considering the state of current affairs, but, for me, the first breath of consciousness each day brings the unwelcome reminder that I no longer have any teeth (on the top of my jaw anyway. This may or may not be called the “crown” of my gums . . . I have asked Mr. Googly, but I’m still not sure). Also, I only have 13 teeth left on the bottom, which, hey, I’m grateful for so that’s why I state it only as an aside and not as part of my general complaint. Anyway, this is what waking up means to me.

I am aware that this is not an appealing topic.

Well, some people love me. But sometimes I get sad anyway.

I am an American woman with ill-fitting dentures that I take out at night. Most nights. Some nights I just leave them in.

But you aren’t supposed to leave them in. Why? Something about giving your gums a rest and not letting bacteria build up. According to The American College of Prosthodontists (ACP), the association that represents the specialty of prosthodontics: “Yes, you can wear your dentures at night, but it is preferred that they be removed. You should remove your dentures at night, and this will give your gums and bone a chance to relax from the pressure of the denture during the day. If you need to wear your dentures for social reasons or to prevent your jaws from over closing, you should find time during the day to properly clean your mouth and your prostheses. You should never wear your dentures 24 hours a day without performing proper oral hygiene. Dentures should be cleaned at night and stored in water during the night.”

So, that’s a no, yes? My guy in Fallon said to take them out . . . (he never mentioned unless I needed to keep them in for “social reasons” or to avoid over-closing jaws) . . . more on that later.

So, I usually take them out. Then—I wake up in the morning feeling like my face is a sad stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway after a torrential downpour. Part of me is washed away.

That’s me on the left. All smiles. Brand new teeth.

By now, some readers might be thinking (in addition to oh dear lord please stop), what about implants?

When I inquired about the cost of implants, I was given the “ballpark” figure of $40,000. “It’s like buying a car,” my Fallon guy said. Indeed. And I would be the first person to say that I’d much rather have a complete set of permanent teeth than a new car. Absolutely! But that’s false equivalency; it isn’t a choice between teeth and a car. Not at all. There’s no money for either of those things. I was lucky to be able to scrape the money together for the dentures, which came to something closer to $4,000 (including the cost of the extraction of my “unsavable” natural teeth). I drive a car that I bought used 10 years ago for much less than $40,000 and have managed to pay off. So I’m not in the market for a new car, and implants were never going to happen.

This breaks my heart, and it also angers me. Why is dental care so difficult to attain? Is it because of a general American lack of concern for healthcare for its citizens overall? Is it because I am lazy and do not deserve teeth? I mean, I have a job. I’ve always had jobs, but some of them (at peak important dental crisis periods), didn’t include dental insurance. If I had been born into a wealthy family, or perhaps if I had been born in a different country, would I still have my teeth? I don’t know. Certainly, lifelong, consistent dental care could have saved me some of my dental losses. I remember having a tooth pulled when I was in my twenties that could have been saved if I’d had the money for a root canal and a crown.

I’d like to hear about the experiences of people from other places. Is this something that happens to many of my peers, but I just don’t know about it because it is humiliating, and no one dares speak of it? And what about people who lose their teeth to accidents or illness? What recourse do they have?

More big smiles. Happier days.

I know there are people suffering much more in places that are much worse. I know that many people of my parents’ generation wore dentures for much of their adult lives, and I don’t remember hearing much grumbling about it, perhaps another reason that their designation as The Greatest Generation is so apt. My parents survived The Great Depression, they fought in World War II (Dad was a Marine in the Pacific) or supplied the troops (Mom worked in an airplane factory), they ballroom danced like athletes, swinging with The Big Bands, and they never complained. Perhaps part of the saying about keeping a stiff upper lip comes from their ability to hide their discomfort about dentures? I don’t know, but I admire them for it.

Does that mean I should just embrace my toothlessness? I mean, my parents weren’t crying about it. And if I should embrace my loss, how, exactly, do I do that?

I miss my teeth. I miss my smile. Like Elf, I love to smile. Smiling is my favorite.

Also, I can’t eat numerous foods that I love. This includes crispy raw vegetables and taco shells and chewy candy—the obvious things—but also many others like pizza or sandwiches or  good crusty bread. Believe me, dentures do not allow it.

Again, I could be wrong. According to The American College of Prosthodontists, “Most patients need to learn how to use dentures properly and as a result, it takes a little time to get used to them. After a while, you should be able to eat fairly normally, but it may take more time to get comfortable with harder foods or sticky foods. Using a small amount of denture adhesive (no more than three or four pea-sized dabs on each denture) may help stabilize the dentures and help hold them in place while you learn how to get comfortable with them and may make the learning process easier.”

“Fairly” is one of the key words in that paragraph. Fairly normally seems to include scrambled eggs, overcooked vegetables, soup, cooked cereals such as cream of wheat, mashed potatoes (a high point), and pudding. Oh! and thank goodness, ice cream is still an option.

Perhaps I struggle with eating because my dentures are particularly ill-fitting compared to others. This I don’t know. What I do know is that they fall out, they move around, and they whistle occasionally (something I could never accomplish before, that, no, I am not grateful for).

I also know that the denture adhesives help a bit, but the downside of using them includes the overflow stickiness that can make it impossible to move parts of my lips at times. True, I use more than the American College of Prosthodontists’ advised “three or four pea-sized dabs.” That’s because three or four pea-sized dabs do absolutely nothing!

Also, said stickiness, which isn’t sticky enough to stop the dentures from moving around during everyday activities like talking and eating, is somehow too sticky to allow its removal at the end of the day. The only way to get most of the adhesive off I’ve found is to scrape my gums and the roof of my mouth vigorously with one dry paper towel after another until I am sore and gagging and my husband has left the room.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention that many dental adhesives contain zinc, and though a certain amount of zinc is recommended, and is usually sourced from a regular diet, digesting extra zinc via the adhesive breaking down and being swallowed can mean that the denture wearer using adhesives with zinc may experience health issues.  Excess “oral zinc can cause copper deficiency, and zinc contained in dental adhesives may thus cause hypocupraemia.” [Prasad R, Hawthorne B, Durai D, McDowell I. Zinc in denture adhesive: a rare cause of copper deficiency in a patient on home parenteral nutrition. BMJ Case Rep. 2015 Oct 9;2015:bcr2015211390. doi: 10.1136/bcr-2015-211390. PMID: 26452740; PMCID: PMC4600814]

The good news here is that I’ve just done a search and discovered there are many varieties of dental adhesive currently on the market that are zinc free. This was a welcome surprise! Examples include: Secure Waterproof Denture Adhesive – Zinc Free, Extra Strong 12 Hour Hold Super Poligrip, and Effergrip Zinc Free Denture and Partials Adhesive Cream Extra Strong Denture Adhesive Cream, Zinc Free.

This bit of happy news, you might hope, will conclude my treatise on the sorrows and lessons of dentures, but I would be remiss if I did not mention . . ..

Intimacy in the bedroom at night on the rare occasion my spouse and I are both awake past eight o’clock. I think this must be one of the unmentionable “social reasons” cited by the American College of Prosthodontists. Alas, my post-natural-teeth desirability rating has fallen. I was never a supermodel, but I was the woman who never went without mascara or lipstick, who shaved her legs every day, and did everything possible within my budget to remain healthy and attractive.

Perhaps I’m being punished for my “vanity.”

I lost my teeth because I tried too hard?

I don’t think so. Mostly because it was never vanity to begin with. It was insecurity. Or, it was being a woman and knowing how women were judged. It may have been many things, but whatever sad mid-century thing it was, it was certainly never vanity.

But, hey. I’ve been up for hours now. I’ve put myself back together. Therefore, the only things I have left to worry about for the rest of today are: The state of current affairs. My missed visit to my family. Medical bills. Owing the IRS. More stray kittens needing to go to the veterinarian. The car that suddenly broke down.

Never mind.

I’m going to make a nice dinner and have a glass of wine. Some nice, homemade, soft and easy-to-chew food. Maybe soup? And a chilled Chardonnay. Definitely, a chilled Chardonnay.

After all, what do I have to worry about? What do any of us?

The mornings are the worst.

My cat, Jack. He’s not a morning guy either.

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Filed under Advice, Aging, Dental Care, Dentures, Health, Identity, Loss, Patient Advice and Support, The Greatest Generation, Uncategorized, World War II

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September 10, 2015 · 11:45 pm

Scanxiety

billyandloribabes

I belong to an appendix cancer support group, and one of the non-words I see quite often in posts is scanxiety, a condition related to the anxiety felt about medical scans that are given regularly for an indefinite amount of time after cancer treatment. In the beginning my scans were spaced three months apart; now they are six months apart. I’ve gotten good at coping with the anxiety nowadays (four years post diagnosis) most of the time, but when I get to the day before testing, as I have today, I find my mind casting away from anything productive.

My creativity is gone. I can’t concentrate on writing my novel or even reading someone else’s novel. I want to talk about it, but I don’t want to sound like a hypochondriac. I don’t want to seem negative. I don’t want to be told not to worry, everything will be fine. Even though I know it probably will be.

IMG_0679 This photo depicts my usual outlook on life, and was taken on my beloved mountain. This is not to say that I don’t love, love, love Wisconsin!

The thing is, I’ve never gotten over that initial out of nowhere diagnosis. I can only say that I feel vulnerable to invasion, or worse, that I feel like an unknowing host. I don’t understand cancer. There are so many different kinds of cancer, so many different treatments, so many different outcomes. Mine, Goblet Cell Adenocarcinoid Cancer of the Appendix, is supposed to be quite rare. It doesn’t seem so rare when I read the stories in my support group.

Sometimes I think I should drop out of the group; it reminds me daily of something I should not dwell upon. I believe in the power of positive thinking, and maybe reading the very real cancer stories, takes some of my shine away. But I also think that I should buck up—you know, be there for those who ask for a prayer or just need to vent and need to know someone out there really hears them.

I rarely participate in any length, usually just a word or two. Others in the group are much better at knowing what to say. Quite a few of them even offer up-to-the-minute cutting edge medical information, where the best hospitals are, how to connect with an appendix cancer specialist, the ins and outs of health insurance, tumor markers, treatment experiences—all sorts of really important information. I can’t help but feel I haven’t found a place of usefulness within the group.

And here I am tonight, inexplicably sad about the way that cancer changed my life and knowing I might be able to get some help from the group if I could just express myself without sounding like an infant. Most of the posts I read are written by or for those of us who are currently in the throes of the worst of the disease—those reeling and just diagnosed, those going in for their 2nd, or 3rd, or 4th surgery. Those who are in palliative care. The loved ones of those recently passed who write to break the news to the group.

And here I am feeling pretty darn good. I am one of the lucky ones. Makes me feel like a phony just wallowing in a selfish bout of survival guilt. And yet. And yet I am sad. Sad that my life changed so drastically since my initial appendicitis attack. The appendicitis that turned out to be hiding cancer.

Four years ago I was a teacher living on a mountain, surrounded by family, friends, students, colleagues, and neighbors that I loved. My four grandchildren all lived within a few miles of me.

That is not to say that my life is not good today, but it has changed dramatically. I miss my old life. I miss my kids. The circumstances of my life after cancer and my second surgery have impacted almost every aspect of my personal life and my career. Not all of it is bad, but some of it is. I’m not going to lie.

Paris to home 2013 085

Sometimes survival calls for sacrifice, or at least that’s the way I’ve come to wrap my mind around it. Maybe it’s nothing as noble sounding as that. Maybe I just got lazy. Teaching, one of my great passions, had always required great energy, energy that I no longer seemed able to summon. I was eligible for retirement. My husband needed work and found a good position in another state. My tumor marker tests showed increasing evidence of cancer at the cellular level, yet my scans were clear.

I’m not sure what tipped the scale and brought us to this new place. Maybe it was down deep merely an urge to run, something I’d done plenty of times in my earlier years. Grief over my brother’s death, financial hardship, chemo-brain, depression, debilitating chronic health issues, fear of recurrence…all of these things and more must have played a part. I only know for sure that the world changed after my diagnosis.

That’s the thing about cancer. It sneaks up on you. I had no idea that I had cancer until I went in for my post-operative check after my appendicitis surgery. And that’s probably the root of my malaise. If I didn’t know I had it then…

Scanxiety.

I’m grateful for what I have; I still have love and family, however far away some of my loved ones are, and I will be forever grateful for what I have had. Nothing can take that away.

Mahalo.GrandmaJazz

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Filed under Cancer, Cancer Journey, Patient Advice and Support, Support Groups, Teacher, Writing

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June 20, 2015 · 1:37 am

The Cancer Journey, Part Two: What Goes in the Bag? June 19, 2015

Is this the kind of bag I mean? Well, almost as much fun.

Is this the kind of bag I mean? Well, almost as much fun.

The Bag

I’m not talking about a metaphorical bag here. You are going to need a real honest to goodness bag that you truly love. It should be as large as you can handle, maybe a large postman style, back pack, or beach bag. Splurge on this. It will be your companion throughout your journey. It should be washable, at least wipe-down-able, as it will be entering into all kinds of compromising situations—everything from car floors to public restrooms. Be sure it has at least two separate compartments and a zippered pouch for smaller valuables.

What Goes in the Bag?

  1. The first and most important item is a journal. Your journal will be used at doctor’s visits, during hospital stays, chemotherapy and or radiation sessions, and in all manner of waiting rooms, not to mention while reclining at home on your most attractive and comfortable piece of furniture.
    1. Regarding the journal
      1. Date every entry
      2. Write down every question you can think of to address with your oncologist, nurses, family, and for your personal research
      3. Freewrite about your symptoms, reactions, and all the fears and feelings, good and bad, that you experience.
      4. List your intentions, hopes, and everything you are grateful for. And yes, there is always something to be grateful for. Add to this list often!
  2. Colored Pens and Pencils (Any and all types you like, possibly including a Fountain Pen)
    1. They are fun!
    2. You can used them to highlight things you don’t want to forget to address. This may become increasingly necessary if you fall into the chemo fog that afflicts many patients: forgetfulness, confusion, sleepiness, and staring off into space for long segments of time, thinking about—absolutely nothing! Don’t let this scare you. I think of this chemo fog, or chemo brain, as a sort of cushion for your mind, a valuable stress reliever.
  3. The nicest lotion you can afford. This goes for men, too! Perhaps several different types, for example, rosemary or lavender stress balm to rub on your temples, hands, and feet. Maybe some peppermint, or eucalyptus.
    1. Check into essential oils and their uses. They can be added to any plain “base” lotion.
  4. Lip balm or moisturizing lipstick
  5. Small comb or brush. This is for the days you actually have hair. Keep in mind that not all treatments cause hair loss, but if yours does you can use the space for something more appropriate, such as a jaunty hat.
    1. You might think about getting a super short haircut before beginning treatment. I did this rather late, but it gave me a real boost at the time and my new hair came in thicker and in lovely shades of caramel and silver. I’ve never gone back to coloring it.
  6. Baby Wipes. Essential.
  7. Reading Materials. Your attention span, ability to focus, and mood, will probably fluctuate quite a bit. I found keeping a wide variety to most helpful.
    1. Magazines
    2. Novel
    3. Inspirational/Self Help/Health: When I found myself wondering if I was going to die, I read some lovely books on the afterlife. I even found myself at one point almost looking forward to the moment when I could put all earthly cares aside and walk into the light. While this was a joy and relief to me, it may not have the same effect on you.
      1. Choose your literature wisely. Avoid anything you might construe as negative or depressing (unless that’s what you’re looking for, of course!).
      2. It’s your mind and your spirit; you must decide what is right for you.
    4. Cancer-related literature. This is deeply personal. Some of us want to read everything we can get our hands on about our illness, others avoid it.
      1. My favorite book on cancer during my illness was (not surprisingly) The Journey Through Cancer by Jeremy Geffen, MD. It really spoke to me in a loving, affirmative, and informative way.
      2. Cure magazine is filled with good articles and is free of charge to every cancer patient.
      3. For a funny/touching coming of age novel involving cancer patients, I adored John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars.
  8. Cell phone. You know what to do with a phone, but also consider these internet sources:
    1. Caring Bridge.org is a private and free site for anyone going through any health crisis. They provide an area to share your story, an online journal, a visitor’s tab where your loved ones can say hello and leave personal messages, a link page for resources you can customize, a photo gallery, and more. I depended on my Caring Bridge journal to serve as a safe and supportive way to inform my loved ones and organize and understand my own journey, and it made it tremendously easier for my caregivers.
    2. Specific online support groups for your diagnosis can be wonderful.
  9. A lovely soft pillow
  10. Water Bottle. I couldn’t bear anything chilled during chemo. I drank room temperature water (sometimes the flavored kind).
  11. A Prayer Shawl. Many faiths organize prayer shawl groups to knit or crochet shawls for those who are ill or in any situation where comfort needs are paramount. I was lucky to receive two of these as gifts during my treatment. Just knowing they were made by hand with love and prayers in every stitch made me feel safe and loved. I often slept in them, and always wore them during treatments. Your caregivers can find these online for you if you aren’t given one by a local organization.
  12. Electric Heating Blanket (or any cozy blanket). Cozy for the car, bus, airplane, or whatever doctor’s office you find yourself waiting in. It may surprise you; it did me, but you may find yourself wanting to drop off to sleep in places you wouldn’t have imagined possible.

The first time I saw the recliners lined up inches apart in the brightly sunshine-filled room where I was to receive chemotherapy, and saw the veteran patients snoozing with tubes in their arms, hands, or chest ports, and all of the other paraphernalia attached to that, I thought, “I could never sleep in here.” I found out quickly they put relaxing drugs in those tubes along with the other drugs, and by the second treatment, with my heating blanket plugged in along with everything else, I was nodding off with the best of them.

  1. Hat, scarf, mittens. Head gear is essential. A scarf to wrap around your face on a cold or windy day will be a great relief if you’re on a medication that makes you hypersensitive to the cold as I was. One brisk wind can steal your breath if you’re not covered.
  2. Thank you cards. These help you maintain that all important attitude of gratitude. Dole them out liberally. Use your colored pens! You will find that people near and far, known forever and just met, will show you many kindnesses. Each card you write will bring you a bit of happiness!
  3. Food. This can be tricky. What I could choke down one week, would be torture the next. My dear husband made a mad dash to the store any time I showed interest in any type of food, and was disappointed constantly by my inability to eat the same thing the next day. My friend Sandy actually flew across the country with a potato ricer to make me her grandmother’s famouslatkes. Nothing worked. At every weigh-in I had lost another three pounds. Everything tasted like charcoal.
    1. I didn’t worry about not eating, but it was hard on my caregivers, so I tried.
    2. Fruit was the least offensive food. And water that tasted like fruit.
    3. Health bars, Jell-O bowls, cashews…sometimes.
    4. I ate oatmeal occasionally at home.
    5. If something sounds good, toss it in the bag! Just don’t forget to refresh your supply. If something seems tasteless and nasty fresh, you don’t even want to think about how the sight of it will affect you after it’s been stuck in the bottom of your bag for a couple of weeks.
  4. A sense of humor. This is every bit as important as the blanket and the attitude of gratitude. Without a grin, or a chuckle, or a crazy moment when you laugh at the predicament you’re in, your situation could close in on you. Do not let this happen! Your life is impossibly, unrelentingly important, and filled with opportunity for humor. Sometimes you have to look had to see it, but it’s there.One day your therapy will be over. Please pass along the secrets of your journey to someone new, someone who was like you before you learned everything that you know now. Make a difference and pass on your travel tips. You may never know what your grace provides, but pass your hard found comfort forward.Mahalo. Carry On!

    St. Paul's Cathedral, London

    St. Paul’s Cathedral, London

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June 18, 2015 · 10:32 pm

The Cancer Journey: What to Pack Introduction, June 18, 2015

The Journey Begins When You Open the Door

The Journey Begins When You Open the Door

You’ve just been given a cancer diagnosis. Often, this news comes as a complete and unexpected blow to you, as it did for me. Other times, as it may have done for you, it comes after nervous days, weeks, or months of wondering what’s wrong, suspecting the worst, praying that it isn’t, going to doctors, and hoping the cough or the pain or the patch of scaly skin you have is anything—anything—but cancer.

Whichever way it happens, anyone who hears the words, “You have caner,” is in for a universally brain numbing and heart stopping experience. After those words, you know your life is suddenly changed in ways you fear and do not understand.

Here’s what I want you to know: many others have been through this, consequently, you are not alone. There are some simple things you can do to soften the shock, and to construct a small space of comfort to hold onto. You will need to prepare.

In July of 2011, I walked out of my surgeon’s office smiling bravely, barely feeling the ground beneath me, holding my five year old granddaughter’s tiny hand, and wondering if I was imagining what I had just been told. I had gone to the post op appointment feeling giddy. Just having survived and quickly recovered from an emergency appendectomy, I felt I had undergone nothing more than a small hiccup, an interruption that was going away as quickly as it had arrived, leaving me stronger than ever. After all, I had done remarkably well. I was already back to running around with my grandkids a bare two weeks after surgery. No need to cancel summer babysitting plans, I thought.

That was why I took my granddaughter with me, and how she was sitting right next to me when I heard, not, how beautifully I was doing, but, that the lab had tested my appendix. I had appendiceal cancer, a disease I’d never heard of and soon learned was rare, what is called an “orphan cancer” because so few people contract it that it doesn’t garner much research

Perhaps, like me, you went immediately to see a family member, or maybe called a loved one on the phone. You might have already been in a hospital. In my case, I checked my watch and saw that it was about time for my daughter to get off work, and since her office was in the same building as my surgeon’s, I dropped in on her. I could deliver my granddaughter to her there rather than at home.

“It’s strange,” I said. “The doctor thinks I have cancer.” Thinks, I said. Because how could that be? I’d never even heard of appendiceal cancer. It was too soon for tears, I guess, and definitely too soon for me to come up with a kinder way to inform my daughter. I wasn’t my usual self. Not at all.

My daughter looked at me as if I’d just told her I wasn’t her real mother, or something equally stunning. “It’s all going to be fine,” I said. I hugged her, spun my granddaughter in the air, and said goodbye.

Oddly, I then stopped off at the school where I taught, though it was summer break and I was off. My friend, Alicia, whose birthday concert I had missed a couple of weeks earlier due to my appendectomy, was there teaching summer school. The hallways seemed unfamiliar and I didn’t know many of the kids. I felt like a stranger. It was not even fully one hour since I’d heard my diagnosis, yet I believed I had already been transported into a new life. Suddenly, I wasn’t only a grandmother or a wife or a teacher or a writer, I was a woman with cancer.

It is in that fog-like state that I had to make decisions about treatment, and struggled to maintain the life I’d had just the day before, figuring out new ways to make the most of tomorrow. How would my husband take it? What about my brother, who was ill and living with us. I was his caregiver! You may feel things are happening too fast. They are. While you may have to accept that and many other unpleasant aspects of the journey at the beginning, remember, having cancer does not make you into a victim.

The American Cancer Society says that everyone who has been told they have cancer should immediately be referred to as a survivor. They print out new purple “Survivor” t-shirts every year. The ACS does lots of good things: provide rides for people who need to get to treatments, wigs for those who lose their hair, pump a great deal into research for cancer of all types.  A part of me loves that they call me a survivor, but another part, the teacher part, perhaps, thinks: The opposite of victim is survivor. I don’t want to be either of those things. I’m also a teacher of the Holocaust, and I can’t help but think of the Holocaust survivors I’ve known or learned about. My survival is something very different from theirs. And then there is this: Some people find the survivor label to be insensitive in regards to the loved ones of patients who died. Did they not fight hard enough? Were they not brave enough? Though I know this isn’t the intent of the label, I wonder about using it. I do wear the purple shirt when I attend a Relay for Life event, but I’m really not sure I should.

All I know for sure is, You Are Not a Victim!

We all do our best. You may or may not have excellent health insurance. You may or may not live near a state of the art cancer center, such as one of our few national cancer centers in the U.S. Even if you do live near such a place, your insurance may not cover it. You have so much to learn, particularly if your particular kind of cancer is rare. My insurance company sent me to a small clinic about an hour away from my rural home that I’d never heard of. I petitioned for (and won) permission to get an expert opinion at The City of Hope in California. My clinic then used City of Hope’s treatment plan, and I began to relax a bit.

Within hours, if not minutes of diagnosis, you and your caregiver (spouse, parent, friend, or adult child who will sign on to go with you on your arduous journey) will be responsible for learning a new language, becoming an expert medical researcher—tech savvy enough to search and set up informational networks for the other important people in your life… and the list goes on.

Make no mistake about it, a cancer diagnosis means you’re going on a journey, perhaps not to Paris (although that’s not out the realm of possibility!). There might be a really good doctor in Paris, one who is the world’s most renowned specialist in your cancer. Your specialist, and I strongly urge you to find one, could be hundreds, or even thousands of miles away. Wherever you travel, either metaphorically or concretely, you will benefit greatly from a well-stocked gear bag.

Coming Tomorrow: The Gear Bag and All of Its Contents

Is this the kind of bag I mean? Well, almost as much fun.

Is this the kind of bag I mean? Well, almost as much fun.

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