by Belle Piazza
He walks into the room and immediately asks “What’s wrong with your face?” This man can read me like a book. He notices even the smallest of changes. My hair, my face, my appearance in general. No, it’s not my husband (are you kidding me?) or some illicit affair I’m having. It’s my Oncologist. I’ve been seeing him for close to 7 years now. Next to my husband, the longest relationship I’ve had with any man. And …
by Belle Piazza
“I’m going to run your CEA again to check on it, it’s risen quite a bit.”
“How much did it jump?” I ask my oncologist.
“It’s 70” (up from 19 at the beginning of the summer) Don’t get hung up on a number he tells me, but I know better and I can feel the tears welling up in my eyes. Increases in my CEA have always corresponded with growth of my cancer.
I frequently hear from …
by Belle Piazza
I always know that my scan is bad when my oncologist comes into the exam room, grabs his chair, and gets right down to business. If the scan was good he’d come into the room, shake my hand and instead of talking about the scan, he’d ask me how I’m doing and talk to me like an old friend rather than a cancer patient getting their scan results. Eventually he gets to the scan, which I’ve usually …
by Belle Piazza
As I left the house the other day to get my nails done, I told my husband I’d probably come back with no hair. I’m going to do it I told him, I really am. And I figured I better get my nails done first so I had some identifying feminine mark on my body. Two rounds of Irinotecan several months earlier had done its damage. Since then, my hair has continued to thin. And thin and …
