For three weeks I slept.  Except for a few now-and-then spoonfuls of soup or jell-o, I slept — sometimes quietly, sometimes with the small sounds of one in discomfort falling over the bridge of my lips.  Prescription pain medications gave … Continue reading →

The body is a brilliant creature.  Every system, each organ, the totality of its container and all it contains is designed for survival.  It fights.  It flees.  It heals itself with near miraculous efficiency.  It grins and grimaces through it … Continue reading →

The night before brain surgery is supposed to be a fitful tracing along the corridor of one’s past; an examination of a life before its intersection with an event that will forever change the examiner.  For me?  I slept.  I … Continue reading →

With a big squirt of Valium sluicing its way through my body, it seemed there was no end to the “wheee” on that surgery table ride.  Surrounded by a staff of hand-patters and atta-girlers, the process of finding a blood … Continue reading →

July 4, 1994: The day before I was to enter the hospital, the dear folks in my apartment complex got together and threw me a surprise “It Was Nice To Know You” party.  Hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill … Continue reading →

Diagnosis night I took my MRI films to show off to my neighbor and friend, Toni.  We drank tea and made up the lamest brain jokes we could devise. Knock knock. Who’s there? Brain. Brain who? Hahaha.  Fooled ya!  Lights … Continue reading →

A herd of deer congregate each morning and evening on the golf course outside our hotel room.  We stand on our second floor patio, holding a glass of wine, and marveling at their tender habits. I wished to take it … Continue reading →

My shoes. With nothing evil or sticky on the bottom of my shoes that would indicate the reason for my new loopy walking stride, the doctor followed the standard protocol that every California HMO has on the first page of … Continue reading →

I believe we each entertain the notion that we’re immortal.  Being a card-carrying member of the Donna Summer, I’m-Gonna-Live-Forever crowd is part of our American meme and I lived that distinction with grand gusto — until one day fifteen years … Continue reading →