I am a psychologist, a health services researcher, and a contributor to The Incidental Economist. The Cancer Journal reports my experiences as a cancer patient in the COVID pandemic.
- “I have serious news.” My day and night in the Emergency Department on July 2nd and 3rd, 2020, when I was first diagnosed with cancer.
- Playing for real money. In which I meet my tumour. I explain what kind of cancer I have, what likely caused it, and why having everyone vaccinated against the human papillomavirus matters, even for men.
- Treating cancer — So many decisions. There are difficult choices for treating cancer. Here’s how I made them.
- Not-so-shared cancer decision-making. How is treatment supposed to work when you can’t communicate with the Cancer Centre?
- Radiation Therapy for Cancer — What’s It Like? For one thing, they put you into a machine. Wearing a mask.
- Radiation therapy for cancer: Two weeks left. On what it’s like to be a cook who loses the ability to taste.
- Radiation therapy for cancer: DONE I’m through. With a health intervention from my dog.
- Fighting Cancer and Fighting COVID-19. Why I don’t ‘fight’ cancer.
- Hallway Medicine. I travel by ambulance to an Emergency Department and get treated in the hallway. Why that happens in Ontario.
- “So, how do you feel about having cancer during COVID?” The emotional cost of cancer.
- WTF, I have a lung tumour? I get to read the results of my CT scan online before my doctor sees them.
- What is health? It’s not clear what ‘health’ means, but you need to get clear about it to make a good decision about your care.
- The PET Scan. I have another test to check whether radiation killed my tumour. And it suggests that the tumour is still there.
- How to Live with Cancer. Getting through with a good marriage, a good dog, and Peloton.
- Ontario on the Edge. How the pandemic is threatening our provincial health care system.
- SHATTERED. I get the results of a biopsy. My cancer is back, and my prognosis is terrible.
- Hard Conversations and Deep Attention. How do you have a conversation about dying?
- Immunotherapy. My search for a new treatment strategy.
- Citizenship in the Kingdom of Malady. Cancer as a personally transformative experience.
- The Combined Positive Score. Finally, some good news: I might be the kind of person for whom immunotherapy works.
- The Sad Thing About Good News. On cancer and depression.
- A Soldier of the Great War. Why I’m not fighting against cancer.
- Thanksgiving. A long road trip, searching for treatment.
- To Hope or Not to Hope. In the liminal world between life and death.
- The COVID Pandemic on New Year’s Day, 2022. The US has experienced 3.1 deaths/million than Canada. Why?
- Not to Hope. I am on leave from death, and grateful for it.
To get future Cancer Journal posts by email, sign up here.
