Did You Ever Think Life Was Gonna Be This Way?

Since my last scan, I've been thinking a lot about the next phase of my life.  I've had life-saving medical intervention that has allowed me to banish almost all of my cancer. I've spent some serious time relaxing and pampering myself, and I have the energy and recovering fingernails (they kept splitting!) to prove it. And now I'm ready to move on, to open a new chapter in my life. I feel as though my future wellness is really in my own hands right now. Do I want to spend my life "managing my illness" - or do I want to commit myself to enhancing my wellness? Um, I'll take the latter, thankyouverymuch!! My new approach consists of four "buckets," if you will: nutrition, exercise, mindfulness, and intellectual engagement . I'm not becoming Buddha or anything (yet!), but I've read enough that I'm convinced that a vegan, low-sugar diet is going to serve me best. I'm walking every day and committed to enjoying yoga again 3-4 times ...

Early this week, not long after I wrote a tongue-in-cheek post about how I wasn't going to say things about how you should hold your sweeties tight and tell them you love them, I received word that my college friend, Rachel Perlmeter, had died of a heart attack on Sunday. She was 38 years old. An absolutely brilliant artist and human being. I met her when she was a freshman at Northwestern and I was a sophomore - a place really just chock full of geniuses - and even so, she stood apart. She was kind and brilliant and funny as hell and one of only a handful of people I've ever met my whole life long who loved books even more than I did (do). She went on to have this amazing career full of artistry and beauty, filling the spaces between theater and literature and art with her own special vision, and married a man that she told me she adored. We hadn't talked in a couple of years but she came to mind at unexpected times and places. Her death has really rocked me.  It migh...

There's this crazy amazing thing that happens when you cry out for help. Within minutes of my last post, I discovered someone had sent me a card game in the mail; I received comforting (and in at least one case, perfectly bossy) texts from several dear friends, all of whom made me laugh even though I was also crying; and I got plenty of internet love, too. Plus my dad called to tell me to ditch the edema and keep the boots, and he threw in a bonus idea of what to make for dinner. So you know what I did? I discovered a Xanax on the floor, so obviously I took that.  Already feeling a bit better, I proceeded to watch the "The One with Ross's Sandwich" episode from  Friends  while taking a bubble bath, and then I got out of that bathtub and put on decent clothes - I even wrestled those damn boots on, too. Next, I started walkin'. Because that's what you do after you finish your middle of the day bubble bath pity party and put on kickass boots. (And also what you...