My Liver Cancer Blog
my first blog, a way for me to process my experience of being diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma
about
I am a professor at a Canadian university. I’m married, have close relationships with my family, love my 2 dogs, love travel, and enjoy hiking (but day hikes only – not really into the hut-to-hut thing). I really hope I can get through this and do some major hikes again in the future. Thank god I also love reading novels (literary prize winners, but also espionage, detective, and sometimes Sci-fi). And thank god I live in an era of excellent tv. And thank god I love writing. There are many things I can still do that I love, even having cancer and being more home-bound than I would like to be.
If you’re new, I recommend starting with How I Found Out.
recent posts
Author: Helagrl
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and waiting, and waiting, and so much waiting. Can my cancer people who know what I’m talking about give me some likes on this one? There is the waiting to get the weekly bloodwork done (though, to be fair, this wait is normally pretty short). There is the waiting to find out the results of…
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I’ve joined a couple of online support groups specifically for people with cholangiocarcinoma and their caregivers. I haven’t posted anything yet – I still feel like a newcomer in a foreign land who is gradually learning the local language. I tend to be a shy and self-conscious language-learner, reluctant to speak (or post) unless I’m…
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My therapist, my oncologist, and lots of nurses have encouraged me to stay physically active. “Movement is medicine,” my therapist likes to say. And one very Russian nurse urged me to walk at least 30 minutes every day, with my bent arms swinging vigorously forward and back with each stride. She brusquely demonstrated the correct…
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Things I feel lucky about: (1) That apart from having a deadly disease, I’m healthy and strong: normal appetite, able to take long walks and I’m gradually building back up to running, reasonable blood pressure, normal blood sugar. (2) That so far the side effects from chemo have been negligible (knock on wood) – a…
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Having gastritis has been annoying (but boy would I like to go back to when that was my only problem, and have that truly be my only problem!). I’ve had to give up a lot of foods I like to eat: no acidic foods (so no tomatoes or tomato-based sauces; no citrus fruits or other…
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My very good friend from university, L, came to visit for a couple of days, and it was wonderful. I told her that my therapist and my oncologist encouraged me to stay active (“movement is medicine”), and so I had been going for long walks a few days a week. So we went on walks…
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Ok, so the two things that are really saving me are the chemotherapy (or at least I hope so – I won’t know if the tumor is shrinking until they do a scan to check) and the love of my family and friends. But more on those later. Here are two other things that are…
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A week or so later I met with the surgical oncologist, Dr. C. My husband was away at a conference in Amsterdam, and I had told him not to cancel his travel plans because at the time he left we didn’t know if it was just a hemangioma or something more serious. I initially thought…
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Today I sent my mom this photo. She texted back,”How can you still look so beautiful and so happy during a chemo visit?” “Antidepressants,” I thought, (but did not text).
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At least a few times a week — sometimes when I wake up, sometimes in the middle of a TV show, sometimes washing dishes — I’ll find myself inhabited by utter disbelief. This is not my real life. Where did my real life go? The cancer is becoming more real to me, but it’s still…
My Liver Cancer Blog 