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WRITE A BOOK, THEY SAID, IT’LL BE FUN

    Long form writing is like a walk in the woods with no map. In the dark. With animal noises. And cliffs on both sides of the trail. If that isn’t a picture of adventure, what is? And all you need to do is sit down and write. And stay down. For a long […]

Neck Cancer … What Is It Good For … Absolutely Nothing

A reader left a comment recently that moved me to respond in a universal way.   Hey Patrick,   Thanks for coming over to boomerpdx. A quick question: How did you find me and this topic. I write about it a lot, but not too many show up in comments like you. I’m glad you’ll […]

Self Glossing Portland Writer Gives Cancer Warning

  “Warning? We don’t need no cancer warning,” said everyone who’s never followed directions even once.   With cancer warnings around every corner, every speck of asbestos in the ceiling, breath of air, drink of water, it gets wearing to the point of being normal.   More people with cancer? More young people? More millennials, […]

Chemo Nausea: How To Cope By Comparing Other Nausea

People who’ve lived a little, maybe over done things once or twice, have lists.   A Best Of list.   A Worst Of list.   Whether it’s a car, teacher, town, or vacation, it all fits one list or the other.   Then there’s the list you make for chemo nausea, which you only get […]

HOW TO COACH CANCER SURVIVORS

    The impact of cancer news hits far and wide, but it is a fastball to the face of the patient and they have no defense. Imagine getting clocked in the head like Tony C and waking up to that ‘new normal.’   Watching it happen in 1967 made a lot of Little League […]

NIKE CANCER TEAM TRAINING CAMP REVIEW

  After a diagnosis for hpv throat cancer I found a cancer team. An Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist, a radiation oncologist, and a chemo-therapy oncologist, all gathered data for my best outcome.   That was the shared goal. I had a couple of others I shared with them, like avoiding opioid addiction and secondary […]

CANCER EXERCISE EXPLAINED BY CHEMO RADIATION

    An article came out yesterday supporting the connection between cancer treatment and cancer exercise. It’s a positive connection in case there are doubts.   ‘The Guardian’ rolled out a well studied post with a sub-title, “Leading Australian researchers back world-first campaign for activity to be part of any treatment,” under this title:   […]

MEDICAL MARIJUANA FOR A DOSE OF CANCER

    Medical marijuana? Isn’t that just an excuse to get loaded without consequences, like jail? That’s what Pat thinks. I caught a rather painful case of cancer and tried one oxy pill, and one nip of liquid oxy, which changed nothing.   Why would marijuana be different?   At a desperate moment I tried […]

CANCER VIEW: WEED FROM THE OTHER SIDE

My cancer view had more weed hope later than sooner with DAG approved brownies. It started with a look for an alternate route for a cure instead of chemo road.   What I found was a log of death in men who’d gone the alternate route instead of chemo, then switched to the hard stuff […]

CANCER ROOM: BEST OF TIMES, WORST OF TIMES

The biggest motivation for writing a cancer room memoir like ‘LICKING CANCER, The Full Response’ is paying tribute to the people I met in there.   From staff to patients, it’s a team focused on the same goal, until it goes off the tracks, and it does in one way or the other for everyone. […]