Hi friends, thanks for all the lovely ways you continue to check in 🌼

For friends who only get updates via this page: I've healed well from the last two surgeries. I'm still experiencing nerve pain on my left side, but it's manageable and I'm doing mostly everything I was doing pre-surgery.

The pathology report came back a few weeks after surgery and although there was good news (only a small amount of cancer in the once-enlarged lymph node), my doctors still recommended radiation.

It begins today at 11 AM at Beth Israel. There will be 18 daily treatments, Monday through Friday. It will mostly be at the same time every day, but I won't receive that daily treatment time until today's first appointment.

David will be with me for the first week. But, he is about to embark on some important travel – first, to North Carolina to reconnect with his family and friends there (and celebrate his birthday!), and then to central Massachusetts, where he will be working on a farm/ecovillage for the growing season (June – November). 

David has been with me since the beginning of treatment. He's been the best note-taker and question-asker. He's made me countless breakfasts in bed. My doctors know him as a very calm and caring partner. For all these reasons, it's hard for both of us to consider finishing out acute cancer treatment without each other. 

But, we both have big dreams and life goals beyond surviving cancer. And we want to live a lot of life in-between surgeries, chemo, and radiation. When the opportunity came up for him to reconnect with his community in North Carolina, and to learn how to farm in central Mass, we thought it was important for him to take it. We're both good together and apart.

This means that I'll have requests for rides to or from Beth Israel in the coming weeks, which I'll post once I get my schedule. Thanks in advance for reading through all of this, staying up to date on my care, and considering how you can be present.

It was just marathon weekend in Boston, which brought up a lot of feelings about what this time of year has meant to me. This time last year, I ran a marathon, and the year before that, I ran a marathon. I even wanted to run one this year, but it was a desire born out of total delusion.

Why would I want to run a marathon barely three weeks past surgery? I haven't even been training. But I remember what it felt like. There is something deeply enlivening about emerging from winter training and breaking into the spring sunshine to do a very hard thing. I feel it on my skin whenever I go outside now – this itch to send it. What exactly, I don't know.

But I do know, I guess? The end of acute cancer treatment is in sight. I just have 18 radiation treatments every weekday starting today. I haven't been able to think about it much. I've been weighing tough choices in many aspects of my life, including what kind of endocrine therapy I want to put my body through for the next 5-10 years.

Last Saturday, I rolled up to Malcolm X Park in Roxbury where I've spent this particular day the last two years. Instead of running through the finish line of 26.True, I got to cheer runners on as they achieved their dreams in real time. Then two days later, I put on my own running shoes for the first time in months and set off on my own. I didn't intend to run 10k, but I did, and then a little more.

Not every run is a good one, but there are few things that remind me of who I am, what I like about myself, and what I am capable of, more than running. So...I think I'm going to run to Beth Israel today. And every day that it feels good to. 

Love you, and will be sending a schedule about my treatment/meals needs soon.