(Reading on Facebook?  Please click here to be taken to my blog and see this entry as it ought to look: https://www.xanga.com/serenitymine) I sat in the examining room this afternoon, after my surgeon (Dr. Diehl) had left, and shook my head in stunned disbelief.  When I wrote in this blog last week, my course of […]

(Reading on Facebook?  Please click on this link to see the post as it ought to look!https://www.xanga.com/serenitymine) I received a note today from a friend in France who told me, “You are a model of The Faith for us all.”  (Picture shoulder-scrunching, face-contorting cringe)  Although I am grateful for the encouragement of the words, I […]

There are some statements that make me cringe…  – “Not that it matters” (my mom’s favorite, usually uttered right after saying something that really does matter…to her!) – Get over it!  (Uh—no.  Identify it, process it, THEN get over it…) – A little bit won’t hurt you.  (Sure depends on a little bit of “what” […]

I’ve been waiting to name this leg of my McJourney until I had enough information to give it a meaningful monicker.  After another long day in the Cancer Center yesterday, armed with both sobering and relieving information, there is only one possible name for this unexpected and challenging experience with cancer, one that will be […]

(IF you’re reading on Facebook, please click the following link: https://www.xanga.com/serenitymine) I decided several years ago that I’d much rather spend my time counting reasons to be grateful than keeping track of reasons to be mad, sad, or frustrated.  Little did I know how well that outlook would serve me as my life plowed headlong […]

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 […]