[cancer] Writing, blogging and me

[jaylake]

Yesterday Lisa Costello asked me a question I've already been asked in several other contexts. It's also a question I actually expect to come up in an adversarial way if my disability claims are ever audited. She said, "If you can blog, why can't you write

Comments

[kshandra]

gridlore has been experiencing much the same thing in the weeks since his stroke. Thank you for helping me understand it better.

[jaylake]

You are welcome. I am sorry this understanding is needed at all.

[dr_phil_physics]

Hear-hear! It's a question I hear, too. "Why are wasting time writing blogs when you could be writing?" is a question from someone who has probably not written. The first two months I was hospitalized this summer, all the IV medications left me in a fog. Mrs. Dr. Phil knew I was really on the mend the day I finally asked even for books to read.

Your frank discussions about how you have responded to each round of treatments has helped me understand my own recovery and rehab, for which you have my thanks.

Dr. Phil

[jaylake]

Good luck and good health to you, Dr. Phil.

[voidampersand]

Not everyone has what it takes to be a successful writer or a skilled engineer. Many people have no clue what it takes, even including some people who want to be a writer or ended up in engineering without the necessary skills and mindset.

[history_monk]

Something that's a bit like writing: computer programming. I can do that well, sometimes. But even in good health, I can't do it continuously for long periods; something says "no more", and then I can read code (though not so well) but not make a good job of writing it. The idea that complex and powerful drugs mess up good writing makes perfect sense.

[vicki_rae]

Writing a daily blog is a singled-threaded one spoon activity.

Writing books requires a vast number of complete sets of silverware for at least a dozen people. Silverware expended in complex patterns and some days require entire sets and/or many pieces from multiple silverware sets.

This can include, but is not limited to, coffee spoons, soup spoons, grapefruit spoons, dessert spoons, salad forks, dinner forks, fondue forks, lobster picks, and steak knives. Sometimes chopsticks would be useful too.

I'm 19 years post-chemo for a type of cancer and age at diagnosis that combine to strongly suggest a genetic basis. The chemo on its way to saving my life left permanent fingerprints and scars on my cognitive and creative abilties. Chemobrain.

My job is almost entirely analyzing numbers and I can still do it, but I know how much that's an additional piece of luck on top of still alive and still relatively healthy.