Dying with Debra

Hello again Moffitt Cancer Center! This morning, Hans and I met with Dr Dineen to review my latest scans. The doctor agreed that a laparoscopic surgery was in order to be able to get an inside peek at the cancer in my stomach lining and Check up on flathead, the tumor on the my stomach…

Elephants! My second favorite animal on the planet. Do you know the differences between an African Elephant and an Asian Elephant? Hans and I do now. We spent the morning at the Myakka Elephant Ranch, a non-profit conservation center. We had purchased passes last year at the Boots and Bling fundraiser benefitting The Service Club…

The newest pain fighter in my medical marijuana cabinet is called “relief.” I am happy to report it is aptly named. One pea sized dose allowed me to sleep painlessly and awaken without pain of any kind. To celebrate, Hans and I took our boat out. Roxy clamored aboard which encouraged Baxter to do the…

As I was writing what you are about read, I realized that I subconsciously took a page out of a Seinfeld script. Remember the episode where George and Jerry are pitching the idea of their show and say “it’s a show about nothing”. ……. This morning was magic! Somewhere in the middle of the night,…

Bear with me. I’m going to rant a little bit about the ridiculous nature of how medical marijuana is controlled in Florida. I’ve mentioned before that although my medical card is good for a year, Florida has decided that every 7 months, I need to go visit the doctor, the cannabis doctor that is, cough…

Before I share my writing from this morning, I want to update you on my visit with my oncologist to review yesterday’s scans. Hans and I met with the doctor at 4:45 PM today to review the results of my scan. The good news is that all my numbers looked good, and the tumors that…

Dr Berry, I am having a CT scan today to try to figure out why I am having round-the clock pain and chemo symptoms. My last chemo was 12-20-22. Please take a peek at the scans as soon as possible and call me. Your schedule is not open for me until Monday and I do…

Let the testing begin! Warning…this may be boring and I get it. Feel free to skip … I have an appointment tomorrow morning at Florida Cancer Center for my CT scan. As I’ve said in the past, it is important to always be your own advocate. In this case, scheduling was being held up by…

Hans and I have begun a new chapter. I don’t have a name for the chapter yet but I’m hoping it’ll be “ A Bump in the Road,”and not “ Downhill Both Ways” The chapter begins with our protagonist, feeling hopeful. The IV chemo is over and she is ready to explore chemo maintenance. Queue…

I want to come clean about what the past week has been like physically. I certainly don’t want this journal to be just a repository of pain. On the other hand, the whole reason for my journal is to record my reality. So here’s the truth. Last week I purposefully wrote my journal in the…