Uncategorized

In about five minutes, Mr. Hospital Scrubs is going to pump something that looks like blue Kool-Aid into my veins and slowly push me into a whirling, deafening CT machine. I’ll hold my breath on and off so they can get a better picture. “This is your scan day?” asks a kindly nurse. She is…

Late last year a miracle occurred when Kate was admitted to an experimental trial of an immunotherapy drug at Emory University in Atlanta. Further miracles provided for some out-of-state insurance coverage and air fare for her flights from Durham. There is no doubt that without that treatment Kate’s cancer would have worsened and her fate…

As every schoolchild knows, the verb “shrink” comes from the Old English scrincan, which in turn is derived  from an older Scandinavian word: skrynka, meaning “to wrinkle”. Shrink is an important word to people with nasty tumours on their liver; shrinkage is what we want to happen and it is want we want to see revealed…

“Sunrise, sunset. Swiftly fly the years.” So says the song from Fiddler on the Roof, but it is not necessarily the case when you have cancer and are waiting from one bimonthly scan to the next to see if you will be allowed to continue in the experimental drug trial. It is impossible to switch off the…

Some of you may have seen a recent interview with Kate in Christianity Today http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/february-web-only/kate-bowler-on-dying-and-sure-hope.html or read her piece in the New York Times. Many comments on these articles have described her as “dying from cancer” but Kate thinks that a better description would be “critically ill with cancer”. This change does not reflect some sort of unreasonable…

That sound you just heard was the collective exhalation of breath by Kate and her ground crew. The analysis of the scan on her tumours has come in and it is good news: shrinkage of the nasty things all around. The doctor is pleased with the progress; everything is trending in the right direction. Thank…

On Tuesday Kate will fly into Atlanta for her bimonthly CT scan which checks on the progress of the therapy that she has received. Two months ago, the results were encouraging with marked shrinkage of one of the tumors on her liver. Naturally, everyone would like to see continued progress that would justify Kate’s ongoing participation…

I have had two untouchably perfect moments in my life. One was running down the aisle with my new husband on our wedding day. And the other was when they put baby Zach in my arms, and our eyes met, and it was like a conspiracy of perfect adoration. Two months ago, out of the…