Did You Ever Think Life Was Gonna Be This Way?

Supplemental oxygen. Like the rest of the technological advances and innovations that help keep me alive, I have mixed feelings about it. My lungs have had a difficult time with various treatments, I have several lung mets, and we live at 5,000 feet, which all adds up to slowly deteriorating oxygen capabilities for yours truly. I’ve found myself using it more and more often, and while I’m grateful for the relatively easy fix, there’s also the practical reality that oxygen means being hooked up to tubing and cannulas sticking up your nose. This is especially irritating when you have a cold - which is ironic, because of course it’s when you need a little extra help more than ever! Woe be the oxygen dependent who fails to carry Kleenex in her pocket, is all I’m saying.  When I’m out and about, I have little O2 concentrators I can take with me. The larger one is called O2D2 and he’s been in the family for a couple of years. The littlest one is Double-O, because she’s super sly and eas...

PSA: Yep, this entry is about faith and belief and God and all of it. If you're not interested, feel free to sit this one out. If you have a faith practice and disagree with my views, I'm completely comfortable with that. I'm not comfortable, however, with debating the merits of one faith over another or the debasement of any religious tradition. Please keep this in mind before posting. Thank you and Blessed Be. Over the years of my struggle with cancer, I've often pointed out and repeated to myself that I have angels. I do. Angels who have been in the guise of family and friends, offering us everything from dinners to dogsitting, sending comfort and love and little treats to me and my children. Angels who have prayed for me without ceasing, from all the corners of the Earth, and among all major religions. I've had several former students fold my name into the Wailing Wall. Christian prayer groups keep me on their lists. A friend of my dad's prayed (and contin...