Monthly Archives: September 2009
09.26.2009 Posted 2:55 pm
Cycle for Survival 2010 Starting NOW!
It seems very appropriate that on the week I find out that my 5 month CT scan is clean (yippee!), we have launched the 2010 Cycle for Survival website. Both are milestones that I credit with saving my life: the CT scans are proof that I continue to thrive physically and the Cycle event I credit with my emotional survival.
Please check out cycleforsurvival.org and sign up a bike today! The MSKCC team has done a FANTASTIC job and the website is more beautiful and easier to navigate than ever. This year will be bigger and better than ever before…2 states, 3 official locations and over 500 teams will cycle for a cure. Any questions, please email me. I would love to have all of you there.
The event got some great press in Duke’s alumni magazine this month, check it out – jenduke.pdf. And we were on CBS this past Monday AM. Waiting to get the clip and will post that as well.
(Please read on...) Read More
09.10.2009 Posted 8:49 pm
Great Weekend and Great Anniversary
Dave and I had a fantastic Labor Day Weekend. I took a few days off from work to “rebalance” and it was just what the doctor ordered. I had a few days to relax and catch up on sleep etc and then our nephews, Ben and Shaun, came and spent the night. We had so much fun going to the Mets vs. Cubs game, playing football in the park, visiting Madam Tussauds, taking a motorboat around NYC and having a pizza eating contest!
Labor Day was our 6 year anniversary! Sometimes it seems like just yesterday but most of the time it feels like Dave and I have been married a lot more than 6 years. We have been through so much together that I feel like we were both very different people when we got married. We had a great day! The weather was beautiful. We slept in and then took a leisurely walk all around Manhattan. We had a 2pm brunch downtown and just spent the day connecting. It …
(Please read on...) Read More
09.1.2009 Posted 5:19 pm
I Love this Article
My Brain on Chemo: Alive and Alert
Published: August 31, 2009, New York Times
Within the chemotherapy alumni corps there exists a mutual respect not unlike the bond shared by veterans of war. Sometimes that respect is silently conveyed; not everyone wants to talk about it. And sometimes it is shared in the shorthand of the battle-hardened.
Where?
Esophagus.
Who?
Sloan-Kettering.
What kind?
Cisplatin, fluorouracil, Drano,
Borax … .
Side effects?
The usual: nausea, vomiting, hair loss. And the toes are still numb.
Yeah.
At this point the two chemo alums may begin to sense a phantom metallic taste at the back of their throat, a taste sometimes prompted by the intravenous infusion of the corrosive chemicals intended to save their lives. A strong drink might be in order; maybe two.
With that first, taste-altering sip, the two might begin to discuss another side effect that has received attention lately, the one rudely called “chemo brain”: the cognitive fogginess that some patients experience after completing their regimen. That fogginess does not always completely lift, and oncologists are now taking seriously what they might once …
(Please read on...) Read More