Do you have any idea how difficult it is to talk about breast cancer without venturing into “TOO MUCH INFORMATION” territory?!  I’d much rather talk about bunions and gray hair than about breasts, but there’s no way around this topic, given its prominent position in my life these days!    I guess I could invent […]

11:30 – I get back from brunch to find a message from the hospital on the answering machine, my favorite nurse practitioner (Sue) sighing, “Oh, I really wish you’d answer your phone, Michele…”  She tells me there’s been a cancellation and a surgeon can see me tomorrow for my surgical biopsy. 11:35 – I finally […]

I would lounge in strangers’ homes, when I was in college, having devoured everything I could find in the pantry, deliberately ignoring the vacuum and cleaning supplies at my feet, and listening with a sort of rabid attention to a disembodied voice dramatically droning:  “Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our […]

(Facebook readers, please click on this link to view the post: https://www.xanga.com/serenitymine) TODAY’S HOSPITAL VISIT I walked into the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center at 8 o’clock this morning and didn’t leave until nearly 6.  I spent the morning having more ultrasound imaging and 14 additional x-rays, then spent a good bit of the […]

(If you’re reading on Facebook, please go to the bottom of this post and click “view original post.”) June 5, 2008 – I leave the hospital with “You are cancer-free” ringing in my ears. July 5, 2008 – Exactly one month later, I pick up the phone in South Carolina to hear a kind and […]

There’s a perplexing sight along the QEW (highway) between Toronto and Niagara Falls that has fascinated me for years. It seems a little out of place, don’t you think?  Especially when you consider that a major highway runs just meters from the unusual sight. (That’s the highway on the left!) For the first time, my […]

(Reading on Facebook?  Don’t–it’ll take forever for the photos to load!  Instead, click on the “View original post” link above to be taken directly to my blog. ) In my hurry to recover, I’ve been spending a lot of time doing nothing.  And by “nothing,” I mean working feverishly on an iMovie about BFA to […]

It has been a long and winding road… PHASE ONE: Dec. 31,  07:  Diagnosis of MAC (Microcystic Adnexal Carcinoma) and launch of the McJourney. PHASE TWO: June 2, 08:  Surgical removal of the cancerous tumor and the excessive scar tissue left behind after my initial hack-job.  Discovery that additional suspicious bumps were just that—bumps.  I’m […]

Day One is over, and the good news keeps rolling in… My mom and I arrived at our motel last night after a long day of driving and socializing.  We LOVE our Microtel!  It’s clean, it’s sound-insulated, it has an ironing board and iron in the room (yes, Youngs, I am indeed excited about that!) […]

I sneaked out of my Riedlingen apartment shortly before 5 am on Tuesday morning and thought to myself, “I smell a skunk.”  Now, in North America, that wouldn’t be anything unusual, but I actually don’t remember ever smelling a skunk in Germany.  I dragged my bags up the stairs to my car and noticed what […]