February 18, 2022 When I was a little girl I kept a diary. I honestly thought if I wrote down the terrible things that they would be “trapped” inside those pages. Locked behind the little key I had. Diaries were very common back in the ’70s and ’80s. None of mine survived to be placed […]

New Year New Beginnings This year I hope to blog more, share big, and have fun with paint and food. Tag along with me as I share my life with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, some missing nerves with small fiber, and a heck of a lot of awesome Jewish sweet challah bread. Crazy creations may […]

A friend once asked me to share how “personal courage” shaped my medical outcomes, wanting to know more about how I do it. How is it that I walk when I shouldn’t be able to? How is it that I see when I nearly lost my sight? How is it that I seem to shape […]

I never knew cancer could have so many cousins. That the medication to prevent a third cancer round could take my sight. Out of fear came acceptance and determination, and that made me free in my art, as I paint the way the world appears when my eyes are being jerks. Colors I never felt […]

Published in The Mighty August 7, 2021 The media loves to hype up a television series and as of late, they have destroyed public perception of CRPS (complex regional pain syndrome), as well as the experimental treatment of ketamine infusions. One would hope for a rare disease to be represented respectfully. Unfortunately, that often doesn’t […]

Published on The Mighty June 8, 2021 Ketamine infusions have been in the news for both good and bad reasons. All too often the stories involve people who have vastly different lives than most. They have access to or can afford the best in medical care. They don’t know what it is like to wait […]

Published on The Mighty 6/3/2021 Often we have discussions about our medications, infusions, therapies, and all that modern medicine has to offer. The other side of the coin is how to be a team player in your own care. It becomes a second job, your own career, and your own “little voice” urging you to […]

My inner demon likes to tell me that I will not succeed in anything I try. It assigns rejection and dislike to people without them really saying or doing anything. My inner voice takes the negative side without a thought. It seems automatic, unavoidable, and heartbreaking. The majority of my mistaken sadness lies only in […]

Ah, meditation; such a loaded word for some of us. I called it the ‘foo-foo’ stuff my therapist feeds me, that my primary tried to get me to think about and even my Rabbi. I didn’t understand how you could not think and think at the same time. How to slow down my crazy mind, […]

The “best case,” that is what my doctors told me about my second diagnosis with cancer. I had the “good” cancer, the one most treatable, a hormone-positive breast cancer. The plan was straightforward, and in my case, I was told my stage one invasive ductal carcinoma of the left breast could be cured. I underwent […]