Tag Archives: pain management

Past Tense

Posted on February 13, 2015 by Scorchy

The paperwork is in. Fifty pages compiled by four people and faxed to two insurance companies. Disability. I didn’t want to do it. Indeed, for two years I fought hard to crawl my way back to who I was. I can hardly … Continue reading →

Posted in Advocacy, My Stage IV Life, Social Commentary, Stage IV Musings, Uncategorized | Tagged advocacy, breast cancer, Cancer Culture, career, Diagnosis, fear, friends, Information resources, metastasis, metastatic breast cancer, pain management, Stage IV, stage iv breast cancer, support, vulnerability | 45 Comments

Remission

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Scorchy

The Catch-22 of having metastatic breast cancer is this: when you’re caught in a period of crisis all you hope for is that your scans will improve, the pain will lessen or go away, your energy will return, and that … Continue reading →

Posted in My Stage IV Life | Tagged Attitude, awareness, breast cancer, breasts, cancer cell, Cancer Culture, career, Catch-22, Diagnosis, Exemestane, exhaustion, friends, frustration, Humor, knitting, Lupron, metastasis, metastatic breast cancer, pain management, PET/CT, Philosophy, remission, Stage IV, stage iv breast cancer, support, Tamoxifen, Treatment, vulnerability, Xgeva | 40 Comments

Released from Prison

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Scorchy

Where the hell have I been these past few months? Well, ever since my last episode with radiation of a painful bone tumor in my sacrum, I seem to have misplaced my voice. It could likely be lost among my yarn stash, but … Continue reading →

Posted in My Stage IV Life | Tagged breast cancer, breasts, career, compartmentalization, denial, depression, friends, frustration, guilt, knitting, metastasis, metastatic breast cancer, pain, pain management, pain. chronic pain, prison, scan, self-worth, social life, socialization, Stage IV, stage iv breast cancer, stigma, support, Treatment, vulnerability | 20 Comments

DONE

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Scorchy

Radiation: Day Five

Posted in My Stage IV Life, Stage IV Musings | Tagged breast cancer, Diagnosis, metastasis, metastatic breast cancer, pain management, Radiation, Stage IV, stage iv breast cancer, Treatment | 4 Comments

You Want It? You Got It.

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Scorchy

Dear Ladies Who Want My Breast Cancer, I know that my blog posts and Twitter activity have been minimal since august of 2013. It was a miserable year filled with tests, pain, and uncertainty. I think I have been distant … Continue reading →

Posted in Breast Cancer PSAs, Breastploitation, Social Commentary | Tagged @OfficialPAC, advocacy, Attitude, breast cancer, Cancer Culture, embarrassingly bad ad campaigns, fear, fucked up shit, metastasis, metastatic breast cancer, pain management, pancreatic cancer, Pancreatic Cancer Action, pink ribbon, Politics, Stage IV, stage iv breast cancer, support, Treatment, vulnerability | 33 Comments

The Road to Ruin

Posted on January 1, 2014 by Scorchy

I have been blessed with relatively good health all of my life. I did go some years without health insurance as a professional student, but I came through that okay. The closest I came to chronic disease was reading about … Continue reading →

Posted in Finances, My Stage IV Life, Stage IV Musings | Tagged advocacy, awareness, breast cancer, co-pays, expenses, friends, frustration, health insurance, Information resources, insurance, metastasis, metastatic breast cancer, pain management, pink ribbon, Stage IV, stage iv breast cancer, support, Treatment, vulnerability | 27 Comments

After the Crisis, Ambiguity

Posted on December 5, 2013 by Scorchy

Since August I have been struggling to write. Writer’s block would be the easy explanation. But as reality has it, there is so much more going on. For the first year of my diagnosis I scorched Earth with my posts. … Continue reading →

Posted in Career Conundrums, My Stage IV Life, Stage IV Musings | Tagged ambiguity, anger, breast, breast cancer, Cancer Culture, career, co-pays, denial, Diagnosis, finances, Letrozole, metastasis, metastatic breast cancer, oncologist, optimism, pain management, pink ribbon, retirement, retirement savings, scan, Stage IV, stage iv breast cancer, support, Treatment, vulnerability, writer's block | 41 Comments

A New Life of Accommodation

Posted on September 27, 2013 by Scorchy

It has been a few months beyond a year that I started blogging. And to tell you the truth, it’s been a little difficult for me to get back into the swing after my latest hiatus. Blogging has been the … Continue reading →

Posted in Advocacy, My Stage IV Life | Tagged accommodation, advocacy, awareness, being alone, being single, breast cancer, cancer, disability benefits, friends, human resources, Information resources, long term disability benefits, Lyrica, Marcus Aurelius, metastasis, metastatic breast cancer, Methadone, normalcy, Oxycodone, OxyContin, pain management, stigma, support, Treatment, vulnerability | 37 Comments

Kobayashi Maru

Posted on September 14, 2013 by Scorchy

My latest paincation was intense and it was made more so by the experience of radiation. Now, like most things in this disease I was fortunate: only five consecutive days and maybe twenty minutes of my time each day. But … Continue reading →

Posted in My Stage IV Life, Stage IV Musings | Tagged advice for patient, anxiety, breast cancer, breasts, cancer cell, career, Diagnosis, fear, friends, frustration, health, metastasis, metastatic breast cancer, pain management, psychiatrist, Radiation, Stage IV, stage iv breast cancer, support, the machine, Treatment, Varian, vulnerability, Xanax | 42 Comments

Purple Haze

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Scorchy

This is what my knitting looks like these days: Knit 4, yarn over 1, knit two together, knit 23, Yarn Over 1, Knit 8 . . . oh wait knit SEVEN! Okay, unknit 1. Now continue . . . knit … Continue reading →