![Update #17 -- False Alarm!](https://lisa.ericgoldman.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/RizzoFalseAlarm-150x144.jpeg)
When I was growing up, one of my very favorite movies was Grease. The last few weeks I kept thinking of the scene where Rizzo yells out to everyone at the carnival: “It was a false alarm!” She was referring…
![Update #16 - Can't Have the Positive Without the Negative](https://lisa.ericgoldman.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/batteries-2109241_1920-150x150.png)
Doctors have told me since the very beginning of my diagnosis that my disease is incurable and terminal. Yet, almost 5 years on my current medication has encouraged my, perhaps fanciful, belief that somehow, just maybe, I can escape what…
![Mother's Day 2019 - How My Mom Balances Me](https://lisa.ericgoldman.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/see-saw-240650_1920-150x150.jpg)
Four years ago I wrote a Letter to my Mom. I cried as I wrote it, unsure how many more opportunities I’d have to share my love and appreciation for her on Mother’s Day. I still don’t know how many…
![CEA Snakes & Sticks](https://lisa.ericgoldman.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/6010089971_00b9fd74eb_o-150x150.jpg)
Three days after my last scan, I went in for my monthly labs. I wasn’t worried because my scan had come back unchanged from previous months and I thought I was in the clear for another 12 week interval. Of…
![Live Every Day Like It’s Your _First_ (Update # 15)](https://lisa.ericgoldman.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/14336225630_9c8cd83eff_o-150x150.jpg)
Last year I met with a shaman (side note: it was totes kosher because he was half-Jewish – a Sh’ma’n?). The shaman was awesome, and mostly what you probably imagine a shaman to be: wise, magical, smelling of sage. He…
![Reminder: Anyone With Lungs Can Get Lung Cancer](https://lisa.ericgoldman.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/5643724217_715cc70a90_b-150x150.jpg)
Last week, I got a message out of the blue from an acquaintance: “Lisa – I just wanted to send you a note of thanks for sharing your experience and being so open. I went to get a chest X-ray…
![If a Milestone Falls in the Forest, Does it Still Make a Sound? (Update #14)](https://lisa.ericgoldman.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/wood-3119687_1920-150x150.jpg)
Five years ago today, I checked into the hospital for an out-patient biopsy that was supposed to be NBD and woke up to the worst news of my life. In general, I don’t mark my “cancerversaries.” I prefer to reserve…
![Puzzling Challenges](https://lisa.ericgoldman.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/fullsizeoutput_2015-150x150.jpeg)
We have a friend that’s super into very challenging wood puzzles. I got curious about her hobby a couple years ago and she sent me a few to try. They were some of her more entry-level puzzles, but I still…
![What I Bought for Black Friday](https://lisa.ericgoldman.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/peleton-150x150.jpg)
It took me almost a year after the diagnosis to buy anything for myself that wasn’t related to my medical care. In late 2014, finally feeling well enough to enjoy strolling around our local town, I vividly remember wandering into…