Belonging beyond worlds
April 27, 2025
Published by Synkroniciti Magazine in Volume 6, Number 3, Katherine McDaniel, editor (September 2024)
Tag: Chemotherapy
On Health & Healing
August 23, 2024
It’s been 18 months since a scan confirmed my remission status post-chemo, a year since I realised remission didn’t mean diving back into my old life as if nothing happened, and about 3 months since I started to feel significantly better and more like myself. Only once that happened did I realise how bad I’d … More On Health & Healing
Wild Garlic
June 12, 2024
As I sit in the woods, a strong smell fills the air,Pungent wild garlic; eyes close, I am there.On this bench, two years prior, where a call had me picked,Like a rose in her prime, to be told she was sick.A tumour, they’d told me, with no time for thinking,Just garlic’s strong stench; like my … More Wild Garlic
Choices?
April 18, 2024
Recently, someone asked me about my choice to do chemotherapy, knowing all the brutal side effects that go along with it. I didn’t know how to respond – my overwhelming feeling was that it wasn’t a choice. Not one made after hours of careful contemplation and research and weighing up the options anyway. My diagnosis … More Choices?
Advocacy, Overwhelm and Balancing Worlds
June 22, 2023
Reflections on Six Months in Remission Welcome to Remission Station When you were plucked from your life and dumped onto the cancer train all those months ago, you were mad. Your life was ticking along just nicely, thank you very much, and to return to that life you’d have to undertake a gruelling journey to … More Advocacy, Overwhelm and Balancing Worlds
Cancer for introverts
May 28, 2023
Apart from having cancer in the first place, the cancer experience felt like my worst nightmare. In fact, it was my worst nightmare. Shortly after my diagnosis, I quickly realised that cancer is LOUD. It felt like the cruellest diagnosis for a highly sensitive, overthinking, introvert like me. As a society, we’ve collectively decided that cancer is … More Cancer for introverts
On living in the moment when nobody else is
May 26, 2023
If you’re aged between, say, 16 and 30, and you’re engaged in small talk at a social event, here’s what happens: questions. A lot of questions. Questions like: What GCSEs are you taking?What A-Levels are you taking?What extra-curriculars are you doing?Have you started to learn to drive?Who are you taking to prom?What do you want … More On living in the moment when nobody else is
An A-Z of Chemo for Lymphoma
April 29, 2023
“After this cycle I’m taking the PET-CT results to the MDT to discuss ABVD vs BEACOPP efficacy chance on EFS. We also need more filgrastim to help prevent neutropenia and an X-ray and ultrasound to check PICC line positioning.” When I entered the cancer world, a few months prior to my consultant uttering these words, … More An A-Z of Chemo for Lymphoma
This Is Your Everest
April 19, 2023
As I sat waiting in the oncology ward today, a man sat in front of me wearing a hat that said “THIS IS YOUR EVEREST.” Interesting, I thought. I suppose cancer treatment is the toughest endurance test many of us will face. It does seem right to compare it to summiting Everest, the highest mountain … More This Is Your Everest
Top Tips for Chemo (Part 3)
April 8, 2023
Here are my final five top tips for chemo. To read the first ten, click here for Part 1 and click here for Part 2. Track your symptoms but prepare for chaos In theory, because chemo is given in cycles, it is possible to track your symptoms and work out how you will be feeling on … More Top Tips for Chemo (Part 3)
Laura writes... 