Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Cold Reader

I've been staring out of a picture window in the living room every day, watching the season cool, safe behind the glass. I feel as if I myself am pinned and under glass. Every day the same monotony, the same delicate routine. Chemo-brain has caused my writing to be a mess- I can't edit anymore, it seems. Things just fail to... come together...

winter woman, you are a
pale shade of red
watching, still in bed
the crocuses offering upwards
like innumerable paper cups
their
little indignities

how did you get in the business
of not being born?

how did you inherit
this endless passing time
the count of broken lines
on the folds of your palm

you are a cold reader, you are
under the knife
the slivers of a past life
submerged under skin
tiny sunken ships are
just beneath the surface
i remember them still.

winter woman, a humble and
healthy shade of dead
watching, from your bed
the cruelty of a sunrise
the amputation of your holidays through
a picture window
shiny sunken bulbs are
just beneath the surface
waiting to bloom
i remember them still.

------------------------------
A friend recently introduced me to the band Deerhunter, and I am in love. A good deal of the lyrics refer to the hopelessness of chemo and radiation treatment, isolation, etcetera. Here is an except from their blog:

"When I was sixteen I was hospitalized for extensive surgeries on my chest ribs and back because of marfan's. That entire summer was like completely erased. I was in a coma for a couple of weeks. I got to really understand what its like to not be well. I've always sort of understood, growing up with marfan's, but this was hardcore shit ... Anyways, I was trying to transpose the concepts of illness (in this case I was writing from the perspective of someone going in and out of consciousness during chemotherapy, and how they would miss their friends, their past experiences, and anything that reminded them of normalcy, or a time before misery. Nostalgia as anesthetic."






THINGS I DID TODAY

1.) took a bunch of pills

2.) watched Tootsie

3.) talked for like 8 hours on the internet

4.) searched "gorilla fights" on the youtubes, which is absolutely just as entertaining as watching UFC. here, look!

5.) ate m&m's.

that's IT.

you WISH you had a terminal illness!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

slash and burn

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got my radiation tattoos yesterday.

I am hanging in there... day by day.

Had a dream that I was floating down a river made of gold. Almost falling down, as if through a chute. It was incredibly intricate. I was washed up on the bank when a friend appeared and swam to me. I saw a rabbit run off and wanted to point it out, but felt a deep sadness for the moment being gone before I could do anything.

so it goes.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

tough times

This month will be the hardest month of my life.

I start 30 rounds of radiation on the 15th, concurrently with chemo.

I don't even know what to expect.

I've just finished my 6th cycle, 5 days of chemo (today is my first day off) and I feel barely alive. I am a shell of the person I once was. I can't even do those things so vital to living- eating, sleeping, etc. all deny me their pleasures.

oh well. another day.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Sometimes you are forced to take a step back in order to move forward.
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For once in my life I am surrounding myself with people who want to be with me, instead of chasing ghosts. A realization of mortality will do this to you. You find yourself grasping the present with frantic enthusiasm.

I have no more illusions.

Besides, who needs illusions with sunsets like these?

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

get this...

I am about to go see not one, but TWO different friends today

-all alone
-whilst driving my mom's car.

This is a cancer patient's equivalent of an all night binge-drinking extravaganza ending in you convincing your best friend to flirt with some dude to get the W hotel pool key and swimming at 3 am. Basically, EPIC.

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...even if it is just coffee. come visit me!

Monday, November 24, 2008

death and diners

I weighed myself today- 130. Down from 145. I am officially skinny. I think I was this weight at age 14.

I got high last night (family-deal with it) in an attempt to feel better and remember what hungry felt like. Leave it to me to end up scarfing down tangerines all night and obsessively googling "hemipelvectomies" for hours on end, scaring myself shitless.

I am slowly realizing the severity of my situation. It takes time to research, for everything to settle in. Hopefully things will go exactly as planned- I'll never need surgery, the cancer will go away with radiation, and I'll be in remission/cured forever. Realistically, though, one must confront the possibility of not-so-favorable outcomes. One must confront death. I had a dream a couple of nights ago in which I did just that.

You see, I've had a conversation with death. At a Denny's, no less, which I can only assume signifies purgatory or hell or some other horrid sterile place. We sat at a booth and had a cup of coffee. I had a sense death was a man, but with no discernible body. Just fuzzy blackness. I never looked directly at him, just stared at the speckled beige tabletop.

We worked it out. We've reached an understanding. I'm not going to die anytime soon. I was conscious that it was a dream, but still terrified in the beginning, as if thinking about it would usher death in. It was like a nervous first date, I slowly becoming more comfortable as the conversation progressed. In the end, I was left with a feeling. Just a feeling, indescribable, but I will try to anyway:

the only thing that matters is to be happy by making others happy, to love by being loved, rather than being controlled by desire.

I'm not sure if I even subscribe to this (isn't desire so much fun?), but this was my overwhelming feeling upon waking up.

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