In yet another turn of fate, the game board has been flung skyward.

I spent the first part of the week at the hospital getting tested for my fitness to endure an autologous stem cell transplant. The good news is that I am a picture of health, passed all my tests with flying colors.

The bad news is that I am experiencing an aggressive recurrence of the lymphoma. All bets are off. read more

Life since the last update has been fairly routine, if by routine one means a seemingly endless succession of inpatient chemo sessions punctuated by deep exhaustion, malaise, and occasional mild bouts of tummy tumult.

The last round of standard chemo left me pretty well flattened, a piece of unidentifiable road kill sprawled on the sofa, incapable of following a thought for more than a few seconds at a time. It was as though I were looking at a huge, jostling crowd from above, everyone wearing big, yellow hats with nothing to distinguish one from another. Then, one person would take off their hat and I would try to follow that person/thought. But no matter how hard I would try to concentrate, the damned thought would put the yellow hat back on and start trying to hide. Then another would take off the yellow cap for a few seconds before hiding. Ad infinitum. read more