Haircut adventures, Poem up at Alyss and new essay up at The Mighty

First, some publication news!

Thanks to Alyss for publishing “Dorothy: Since Arriving in the Emerald City” in their issue 4. It’s a fantastic issue, including work by Jessica Goodfellow, whose work I really love. Check it out!

Thanks to The Mighty, a blog community for people with disabilities and illness, for publishing my essay on cancer and luck:

https://themighty.com/2016/08/does-luck-play-a-role-in-receiving-a-carcinoid-syndrome-diagnosis/

Please click on it and leave a comment if you like. I’ve been writing tech documents, poetry, and book reviews for some years now, but I’m a bit of a novice at the art form of the “personal essay,” so this is really me getting my feet wet in that area. I’d love to know what you think!

Well, the cancer stuff – we’re now in a phase where I have to do some more fancy rare tests where I go off half my medications and eat a weird diet for a while, then do the rare tests, then get info back on how we move forward on treatment. I thought I’d be getting my first chemo dose at the end of the month, but because the endocrinologists suspect even more weirdness concerning my neuroendocrine tumors, they want to be sure it’s the right kind of chemo before we jump in. Which makes sense, but is frustrating because MORE WAITING.

Had a great long coffee visit with an old friend yesterday who also struggles with chronic health issues. Right now all the support and friendship I can manage to squeeze into my schedule seems like an extremely good idea. Finally made some headway with the post-moving box problem and have started to think of this new place as a place I can actually entertain! After years of tiny apartments, this seems like an enormous luxury.

In the meantime, because one of the side effects of the chemo is some hair loss and change of texture, I decided to lop off about three more inches of hair. I grew it out all last year, so it was a little emotional, but it is much easier (as every woman with short hair claims). Here’s a pic of the haircut, with the very dry grass in my backyard, courtesy of my husband. I also want to get you some kitty therapy here, so here’s another pic of little kitten Sylvia, this time sacked out next to Shakespeare. I call this art masterpiece “Sacked Out Ragdolls.”